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PERSIAN WOMEN: 



A Sketch of Woman's I^ife From the Cradle 

to the Grave, and Missionary Work 

Among Them, With Illustrations. 



By REV. ISAAC MAEEK YONAN, 



M 



A; 



// 



God is Love." 

(( 



NASHVIEEE, TENN.: 
Cumbbrund Presbyterian Publishing House. 

1898. 






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I 



6v48 



Copyright, 1898, 

BY 

ISAAC MALEK YONAN. 






DEDICATION. 



TO THE SACRED MEMORY OF MY 
TENDER, AFFECTIONATE AND ROVING MOTHER, 
NOW DECEASED ; 
TO MY DEVOTED WIFE, 
WHO, WITH HEROIC SACRIFICE AND 
A WOMAN'S DETERMINATION, CHOSE TO LIVE 
A. LONELY LIFE OF SEPARATION FOR THE THREE AND 
ONE-HALF YEARS, AND URGED ME TO COME TO 
THE UNITED STATES AND QUALIFY MY- 
SELF FOR FUTURE USEFULNESS ; 
TO MY SYMPATHETIC 
AND TRUE FRIEND, MRS. MARY SNEED 
LEWIS, FRANKFORT, KY., WHO FOR THE FOUR 
YEARS OF OUR ACQUAINTANCE HAS DAILY TAKEN ME UPON 
THE WINGS OF HER PRAYERS, AND WHOSE 
CONSECRATED LIFE HAS EVER BEEN 
AN INSPIRATION TO ME J 
THIS MODEST VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY 
DEDICATED. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Persian Romanc* 1 

Persian Romantic Mythology — Sentimental litera- 
ture — The Passionate Eove Song's. 

CHAPTER II. 

The Baby L,ife of a Woman 18 

The Naming of a Daughter. 

CHAPTER III. 

The Child L,ife of a Woman 27 

The Maiden L,if e of a Girl. 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Wedded L,ife of a Girl 36 

The Betrothal — The Wedding Garments — The Wed- 
ding- Invitations — The Wedding. 

CHAPTER V. 

Polygamy 52 

The Ceremonial of Marriage Contracts — Divorce — 
Detrimental Effects of these Marriage Laws upon 
Woman's Condition and upon Society. 

CHAPTER VI. 

The Married Life of a Girl — The Home or Dwell- 
ing-Place of a Married Woman 66 

The Houses of the First-class — The Houses of the 
Common People. 



vi Contents. 

CHAPTER VII. 

Woman's Attire 78 

Out-door Costume — In-door Costume — Physiog- 
nomy and Ornaments. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

The Occupation of Women 88 

Grinding- Mill — Drawing - and Carrying Water — The 
Preparation of Fuel — The Churning — Sewing and 4 
Manufacturing — The Harvesting — The Vineyard 
Work. 

CHAPTER IX. 

The Sociae Life oe Women 98 

The National and Religious Feasts — Public Baths. 

CHAPTER X. 

MUTUAE REEATIONS OE HUSBAND AND WlFE 109 

CHAPTER XL 

Women in the Chamber of SickneSvS and Death.. 116 
Burial Ceremonies. 

CHAPTER XII. 

Christianity the Oney Hope for Women 129 

CHAPTER XIII. 

The Non-Mohammedan Women of Persia. 136 

The Jews — The Guebres — The Armenians — The 
Nestorians — The Yezidees. 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Persian Women and Christian Missions 148 

Woman's Work for Woman in Persia. 

CHAPTER XV. 
The Aggressive Deveeopment 156 



Contents. vii 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Evangeeicae Work Among Women 165 

Women's Organizations —Pentecostal Blessing-s. 

CHAPTER XVII. 
Transforming Power of the Gospee of Christ 177 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

A Geimpse of the Generae Work 200 

Little Done — Much Undone. 

CHAPTER XIX. 
Maeek Yonan 210 



PREFACE. 

During- the four years that I have been in the United 
States it has been my privilege to address many I^adies' 
missionary societies, Sunday schools, and different Christ- 
ian organizations, and wherever I have told the sad story of 
my Christless countrywomen a deep interest has been man- 
ifested in their behalf. From my limited experience, I am 
fully convinced that wherever there is lack of interest in 
foreign missions in any church or among- the Christian 
women of the United States, it is not from indifference or 
cold-heartedness, but because of ignorance in regard to the 
real condition of these Christless women. 

Dr. A. T. Pierson has said : " Facts are the fingers of 
God. To know the facts of modern missions is the neces- 
sary condition of intelligent interest." 

For this reason, and in response to many requests, I 
have endeavored in the following pages to give a brief 
picture of the real every-day life of Persian women. 

Trusting that some g-ood may be accomplished by it, I 
send it out on its mission. 

I have also availed myself of such help as I could get 
from such authors as Ex-minister S. G. Benjamin, in 
" Persia and Persians ; " Rev. Sam G. Wilson, in "Persian 
L,ife and Customs;" Dr. Jessup, in ""Women of the 
Arabs;" Miss Reed, in "Persian Literature ; " Mrs. 
Isabella Bird Bishop, in her "Journeys in Persia and Kur- 
distan " and " Woman and Her Savior in Persia." To the 
latter I am especially indebted for suggestions with regard 
to mission work. From each of these I have found a good 
deal that I wanted to say, already expressed in much bet- 
ter English than I could command. 

Would also thank Miss Annie E. Wilson, of Eouisville, 
Ky., for kindly help in revising- the English of my manu- 
script. The Author. 

Presbyterian Theological Seminary, 
Louisville, Ky. 






INTRODUCTORY. 



The author of this little volume, a native of Oroomiah, 
Persia, has been for about five years in this country pre- 
paring - himself to preach the gospel to his own people. He 
was for one year a student in Westminster College, Mis- 
souri. He then took the full three years' course in the Louis- 
ville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, being graduated 
with degree of B.D., in the class of 1896. Since then, hav- 
ing been licensed by the Presbytery of West Lexington, he 
has spent a portion of his time in a course of medical study in 
this city, and a portion in visiting the churches of Ken- 
tucky and Missouri in the interest of mission work in his 
native land. Two years ago he was joined by his wife, 
who has spoken with great acceptance to ladies' societies 
and gatherings of Christian women, telling in her own 
earnest and impressive way of the condition of women in 
Persia, without the gospel, and of the inestimable blessing 
which she and so many others have enjoyed through the 
work of Christian missions in the land of her birth. 

Mr. Yonan has been with us in intimate association, in 
the class-room, in religious exercises, and in social life for 
four years, and all who know him can bear testimony to. 
the purity and unselfishness of his character, to his earnest- 
ness and laboriousness as a student, to his intense zeal for 
the spread of the gospel in Persia and the world, and to 
his remarkable gift in vivid and graphic portrayal of the 
wrongs and sufferings of his people. Those, who have lis- 
tened to the thrilling stories from his lips of the atrocity of 
the Turk, and of the heroism of the Christian martyrs of 
Armenia, will be interested to follow him, as in this little 
volume, from the stores of his own personal observation, 
as well as from the testimony of other competent witnesses, 
he gives us a view of woman's life in that far-off but inter- 



xii Introduction. 

esting- land. Every reader will join us in the hope and 
prayer that the way may soon be open for him and his 
accomplished wife to return as missionaries of the Cross to 
the land that g-ave them birth. 

T. D. WlTHERSPOON, D.D., L,L,.D., 
Professor of Homiletics and Pastoral Theology. 

Presbyterian Theological Seminary, 
Louisville, Ky., Sept. 23, 1897. 



PERSIAN WOMEN. 



CHAPTER I. 
PERSIAN ROMANCE. 

The Persians are among the most romantic and senti- 
mental people on earth. Their close contact with the 
Arabian literature, poetry, nomadic life and desert songs 
has colored the pages of their romance with passionate 
loves, tragic hates, burning sentiments, and uncontroll- 
able resentments and jealousies, which are purely char- 
acteristic of the inhabitants of the desert. 

The gorgeousness of their poetry, the fiery sentiments 
of their songs, and the bewildering descriptions of their 
fiction cannot be rivaled, even by the magnetic pen of 
Shakespeare in the tragedy of a Romeo and Juliet." 

The wild imagination of its writers has wandered 
freely in the mystical wilderness of sorcery, and has 
found bountiful material from their fabulous mountains 
of emerald, and the lofty hills of ruby; from the great 
rivers, ever gushing from the fairy fountains and water- 
ing the valleys, from which the perfume of the orange 
blooms and the sweet fragrance of roses come ceaselessly 
to recreate the fainting hearts of the Oriental lovers. 

(i) 



2 Persian Women. 

Four things have furnished material and inspiration 
to the poets and singers of Persia, and have enabled 
them to pour out the little gems of their imagination 
and to weave the gorgeous web of their poetry and song, 
which are distinctly Persian in characteristics and style. 
We may term these the Persian's "Great Four." 

The Roses, with their magnificent bloom, smiling at 
the face of the rising sun, and bowing in reverence 
before the crimson draperies of his setting, and filling 
the air with their sweetest perfumes. 

"Each morn a thousand roses bring 
You say; 
Yes, but where leaves it the rose of 
Yesterday?" 

The Cup of Red Wine, freshly prepared from the 
luxuriant vines, glowing within the crystal glasses, to 
make happy the saddened hearts, "according to Persian 
sentiment. 

"Drink, for you know not whence 
You come, nor where; 
Drink, for you know not why 
You go, nor where!" 

The Nightingale, with its golden wings and silvery 
feathers, hopping from bough to bough and singing con- 
si antly its harmonious songs in behalf of the red wine 
to the rose. 

" 'Wine! Wine ! Wine! * 
Red wine!' the Nightingale cries to the 
Hose." 



Person Romantic Mythology. 3 

And Woman, with her charming beauty and pleasant 
manners, makes the world a paradise for man. For 
"without woman how could there be romance or song?" 

The poets and singers, having these four things for 
their theme, wrote fluently and sang feelingly; especially 
the local musicians, who with their violins upon their 
shoulders, would go about, finding nothing more attract- 
ive and pathetic than the stories of "Y'ar" — Sweetheart, 
and "lover." 

PERSIAN ROMANTIC MYTHOLOGY. 

One of the greatest achievements of this age has been 
the bringing to light the history of the hidden past into 
the living present. The stupendous stone has been 
rolled away from the deep sepulchre, and a buried litera- 
ture has been resurrected with great triumph. The 
voices of the civilization and culture of the ages that are 
past are ringing clearly from the ruins of each city and 
rock of the Orient. Oh! what a cloud of witnesses to 
the living Providence! The tablets tell us that Persia, 
from time immemorial, has been the home of romantic 
literature, sentimental poetry, and luxuriant mythology. 
Among the numerous descriptions of deities and kings 
in the great pantheon of the Cuneiform Age, the story 
of "Ishtar, the Queen of Beauty and Love, the great 
Goddess of Romance" reads with pathos and feeling. 
Ishtar was the daughter of "Sin, the Moon-god," the 
original of the Greek Venus, and the prototype of 



4 Persian Women. 

Freyja, the weeping goddess of love, among the North- 
men. She is represented in the legend as dressed in 
great splendor, with her rings and jewels, her girdle 
decorated with diamonds and rubies, and going to Hades, 
the region of darkness and shadow, to search for her 
missing husband, Tammuz. At her arrival she found 
the door of Hades closed and fastened. Going to the 
porter she said, in part: 

"Oh, keeper of the entrance, open the gate! 

Open thy gate, I say again, that I may enter! 

If thou openest not thy gate, and I enter not, 

I will assault the door; I will break down the gate, 

I will attack the entrance, I will split open the portals, 

I will raise the dead to be the devourers of the living! 

Upon the living the dead shall prey!" 

The porter being greatly alarmed by the thundering 
words of Ishtar very politely and tremblingly said: 

"Stay, lady! do not shake down the door, 
I will go and tell this to Queen Nm-ci-gal." 
The porter entered and said to Mn-ei-gaL, 

"These curses thy sister Ishtar utters. 
Blaspheming thee with great curses /' 

The Queen of the Hades trembled on hearing the 
threats of Ishtar, and said quietly: 

"Go, porter! open the gate for her, 
But strip her like others, at other times." 

Ishtar went to the first door of Hades and" she was 
admitted, but her crown was taken away from her head. 
At the second door they took away her beautiful ear- 



Persian Romantic Mythology. 5 

rings. At the third door her precious stones were taken 
away. At the fourth door her lovely small gems were 
taken from her forehead. At the fifth, she was deprived 
of her emerald girdle. At the sixth door the golden 
rings on her hands and feet were taken away. xind at 
the seventh and last door she was admitted, but was 
stripped of her last, garment. 

At each door she pathetically exclaimed: "Keeper, 
do not take from me my jewels and garments!" But 
the keeper did not listen. All these things she suf- 
fered and gave up her precious treasures because of her 
intense love for her missing husband. After she had 
wandered long in Hades, there was great concern on her 
behalf among the gods. And the god "Hea" volun- 
teered to rescue Ishtar from the shadows of hell. As the 
result of his mission, the seven gates swung open on 
their hinges and at each she received back her stolen 
decorations and resumed her great honors and adorations 
as the great imperial goddess of Love and Beauty. 

The tablets giving this narrative in full are preserved 
in the British Museum. 

SENTIMENTAL LITERATURE. 

If Greece had her Homer, Italy her Dante, and Eng- 
land her Shakespeare and Tennyson, Persia is equally 
proud of her Omar Khayyam, Firdusi, Hafiz, Kizanii, 
•and Sa'de, whose exquisite pearls have been great in- 
spiration and stimulant to thousands of youth. 



6 Persian Women. 

Their writings are sentimental and mystic in style, 
tender and pathetic in thought and beautiful and flowery 
in language. 

One of the foremost of the Persian poets is undoubt- 
edly JSTizami, of Ganja, who lived in the twelfth century. 
He was the founder of the Eomantic epoch, and has con- 
tributed more love songs to the Persian literature than 
any other. One of his best productions, is his story 
entitled: 



* "LAILI AND MAJNUN 



>? 



Two ardent lovers, whose misfortunes and devoted 
affection excite tears of sympathy and interest in all the 
East. Majnun was the son of a chieftain, and Laili, the 
daughter of an humble Arab, who nevertheless pos- 
sessed all the pride if his desert race. Laili was so beau- 
tiful and charming, that when Majnun first gazed upon 
her flashing dark eyes, and, 

"The soft expression of her face, 
Distraction stung his burning brain; 
No rest he found by day or night, 
She was forever in his sight!" 

As Laili's people were accustomed to wandering in 
the desert, they one day folded their tents and went to 
the mountains with their families and cattle, leaving no 



*A fuller description of L,aili and Maj nun's story will be 
be found in " The Persian Literature," bv Miss Reed. 



Laili and Majnun. 7 

trace of their march, and cutting off every possible way 
for the two lovers to communicate with each other. 

Majnun became almost insane in the vain search after 
his love through the groves and glens of the wilderness 
and the solitary rocks of the mountains. At length his 
father, alarmed by his condition, took an organized band 
and went in search of the Arab tribe. Finding them, 
in their mountain stronghold he made proposition of 
marriage for his son to the maiden, but in such a con- 
ceited and haughty way that he received a very cold and 
unfavorable message in response. The chieftain, indig- 
nant and full of anger took his homeward trip. When 
poor 

"Majnun saw his hopes decay 
He beat his hands, his garments tore, 
He cast his fetters on the floor 
In broken fragments, and in wrath, 
Sought the dark wilderness path, 
And there he 'wept and sobbed aloud, 
Unnoticed by the gazing crowd." 

Once, while wandering near the camp of the Arabs he 
was seen by some relations of Laili, who represented 
him as a wild and insane youth in the desert. The 
maiden, recognizing her lover in their description, re- 
joiced over the tidings though she feared to go out to 
meet him, dreading her father's wrath. But anxiously, 

'Trom morn to eve she gazed around, 
In hopes her Majnun might be found." 



8 Persian Women. 

Once, while sitting at a fountain under a shady cypress 
tree near the encapment, with bright hopes of chancing 
to see her beloved, she mournfully sang her faithfulness. 

"Oh, faithful friend and lover true, 
Still distant from thy Laili's view; 
Still absent, still beyond her power, 
To bring thee to her fragrant bower; 
Oh, noble youth, still thou art mine! 
And Laili, Laili still is thine! 7 ' 

While she was thus chanting her love songs under the 
cool shade of the tree, a stranger, a princely youth by 
name Ibn-Salaam, passed by. His eyes rested upon her 
crimson lips and the beaming softness of her dark eyes. 
Electrified by her grace and beauty, he hurried to her 
father with a plea for his daughter's hand. Because of 
his kingly apparel and dazzling ornaments he was 
favored by the father of Laili, who gave his consent to 
the proposed union. 

The poor Ma.jnun may wander, threaten, and try to 
induce his friends to fight the cruel Arab, but all is vain. 
The contract is signed and the father has pledged his 
word of honor. 

The new lover brings Ms costly gifts; a long line of 
camels, all laden with embroidered robes, beautiful rugs 
and carpets, silks of all kinds, and the most valuable 
gems to be laid at the bride's feet. 

The rattle of the drums and the shrieks of the pipes, 
the music for the marching steeds, announces the com- 
ing of the bridegroom, dressed in the richest cashmere, 



Laili and Majnun. g 

and smiling at each step like the rising sun. The wed- 
ding takes place in due time although against the maid- 
en's will, whose pitiful pleadings were unheard and un- 
cared for by any mortal. She still cherished Majnun's 
memory with tenderest feeling though the wife of Ibn 
Salaam now. 

"Deep in her heart a thousand woes, 
Disturbed her days' and nights' repose; 
A serpent at its very core, 
Writhing and gnawing evermore; 
And no relief, a prison room 
Being now the lonely sufferer's doom." 

The rolling years and the whirling months did not 
bring any soothing to the heartache of Laili. She sat 
quietly in her prison tower, watching the circling of the 
sun by day and the flashing of the stars by night, with 
but a fainting hope in her sad heart for her Majnun. 

Once, while sitting in her chamber meditating on her 
fate, she heard an unusual noise below; shrieks and wail- 
ing cries; a great confusion in the family. A messenger 
entered with a death note announcing the death of ibn 
Salaam. Although the messags was a star of hope and a 
benediction to her heart, yet to fulfil the Arab law she 
assumed the garments of woe and wept with the rest. 

"But all the burning tears she shed. 
Were for Majnun. not the dead." 

When the prescribed years of mourning were fulfilled 
and she was freed from her rockbound tower, she called 



io Persian Women. 

her trusted servant boy and sent a hasty message to 
Majnun. She appointed a time and place for the two 
lovers to meet in communion sweet. She made her way 
through groves of palms and bowers of roses, not stop- 
ping until she saw the haggard form of her lover. 
Stepping gently to his side she laid her hand upon his 
arm and said: 

"Ah, Majnun, it is thy Laili that has come!" 
As he recognized the familiar voice and the gentle 
touch, overcome with emotion, he fainted at her feet. 

"His head which in the dust was laid, 
Upon her lap she drew, and dried 
His tears with tender hand and pressed 
Him close and closer to her breast; 
Be here thy home, beloved, adored, 
Eevive, be blest — Oh! Laili's lord! 

"At last he breathed, around he gazed, 
As from her arms his head he raised; 
'Art thou/ he faintly said, f a friend 
Who takes me to her gentle breast? 
Dost thou in truth so fondly bend 
Thine eyes upon a wretch distressed V 

" 'Are these thy unveiled cheeks I see? 
Can bliss be yet in store for me? 
Is this thy hand so fair and soft? 
Is this, in sooth, my Laili's brow?' 

"In sleep these transports I may share 
But when I wake — 'tis all despair! 
Let me' gaze on thee — e'en tho ? it be 
An empty shade alone I see; 
How shall I bear what once I bore 
When thou shalt vanish as before?" 



Laili and Majnun. II 

To this, Laili responded quickly and readily: 

"Here in this desert, join our hands, 
Our souls were joined long, long before; 
And if our fate such doom demands, 
Together wander evermore. 
Oh, Majnun! never let us part, 
What is the world to thee and me? 
My universe is where thou art, 
And is not Laili all to thee?" 

Majnun, knowing that, according to the Arab law, he 
could not make her his wife, with tearful eyes and fal- 
tering voice, answered: 

"How well, how fatally I love, 
My madness, and my misery prove; 
All earthly hopes I could resign — 
My life itself, to call thee mine. 
But shall I make thy spotless name, 
That sacred spell — a word of shame?" 

"Shall selfish Maj nun's heart be blest, 
And Laili prove the Arab jest? 
The City's gates though we may close, 
"We cannot still onr conscience's throes. 
No, we have met, a moment's bliss 
Has dawned upon my gloom in vain; 
Life yields no more a joy like this; 
And all to come, can be but pain." 

He clasped her close to his aching heart, and kissed 
her sorrowfully — his last good-bye. 

Accompanied by her servant, she went back to her 
home and lived a most solitary life. The time of life's 
sunset drew rapidly nigh. She called her mother to her 



i2 Persian Women. 

bedside and entreated that when she was dead, Majnun 
might be allowed to weep over her grave. 

After she was gone, the faithful servant took the tid- 
ings to the poor love-stricken Majnun. He made Ms 
way weepingly to the grave and mourned over her for 
weeks. At last he was found with Ms head resting upon 
the tomb and the peaceful touch of death upon Ms brow. 

Laili^s tomb was opened and they laid the stilled heart 
beside her own. 

"One promise bound their faithful hearts — one bed 
Of cold, cold earth umted them when dead. 
Severed in life, how cruel was their doom, 
Ne'er to be joined but in the silent tomb!" 

Another of Nizami's productions is his stoiy of Shirin 
and Farliad, two other lovers, whose devotion and sad 
life is no less thrilling and sentimental than that of 
Laili and Majnun. Some of the Persian scholars even 
admire it more. Shirin was the betrothed of the King 
Khosroe Parwiz and Farliad was a famous sculptor in 
Ms employment. These two fell in love with each other; 
and the King being aware of it, promised to give her to 
him if he could execute the impossible task of bringing 
to the city the abundant waters of the mountains. Far- 
had set himself to the Herculean labor, and to the horror 
of the King nearly accomplished it, when Khosroe Par- 
wiz dreading the advancing necessity of losing Shirin or 
being dishonored, sent to inform him of her death. 
Being at the time on the top of a precipice, urging on 



ASLEY AND KARAM. II 

the work of the aqueduct, the news filled him with such 
ungovernable despair that he threw himself down and 
was killed. 

THE PASSIONATE LOVE SONGS. 

There are numerous love songs in Persia that have 
never been reduced to writing. The musicians sing them 
with greatest ardor; and are always listened to with 
breathless attention. One of the most popular songs in 
Persia is the stoiy of the lovers, 

ASLEY AND KAPvAM. 

They lived several hundred years ago in Oroomiah. 
According to the legend, Asley was the daughter of a 
Nestorian, a man of considerable means and from the 
well known family of the Maleks, who lived in a pretty 
villa, just a few miles cast of the City. The daughter 
was celebrated for her beauty and gracefulness. She 
spent most of her time by a marble fountain just at the 
outskirts of the woods instructing her maids in caring 
for the plants, vines and flowers that grew so luxuriantly 
in her father's exquisite garden. She is represented as 
always dressed in her flowing Oriental costumes, em- 
broidered richly in silk of rarest value, whose varied 
colors were constantly reflected in the crystal waters of 
the gushing fountain. The artistic garden, the beauti- 
ful girl, and the refreshing fountain were objects of 
special pilgrimage, and all passei-s by admired the un- 
trained work of art. 



14 Persian Women. 

But it was viewed with the added fascination of nov- 
elty by Karam, the son of a wealthy Mohammedan of a 
neighboring village. Once, as he was hunting in the 
adjoining woods, his "Lala-man," guardian, was hold- 
ing the "Kurgoon," a trained bird, and as he let it fly to 
start up a flock of birds that they might shoot into them, 
the bird made a. peculiar sound, awe-stricken by the 
loveliness of a woman, to attract the attention of the 
master and the guardian to the living picture at the 
fountain. Karam beholding the beauty and grace of 
her divine countenance, loved her from that very 
moment and made up his mind to marry her. Forget- 
ting his hunting, he sat under the shade of a palm tree, 
and, inspired by her beauty, wrote poems upon the palm 
leaves and sent them to her by the "Lala.-man." Asley 
in answer wrote poems of love to her lover of the forest, 
which, with their messages of love and encouragement, 
the guardian joyfully returned to his master. 

The years passed by. The lovers' patience being ex- 
hausted, according to custom, Karam goes to his father 
and with pathetic pleading, persuaded him to visit her 
father on a love mission. But the difficulties in the way 
seemed as great and high as the everlasting hills. There 
were not only social problems to be solved, but religious 

differences, one being a Mohammedan, the other a !N"es- 
torian Christian. After many heated debates the Malek 

gave his decisive answer, that it was impossible for him 

to marry his daughter to the richest Mohammedan upon 



ASLEY AND K.ARAM. 1 5 

the face of the earth. Thus the father of the lover 
returned to his home with no word of hope for his 
only son. But Karam, nothing daunted, made Ins way 
every day to the woods near his sweetheart's home and 
sung the sweetest stories of his love, and wept bitterly 
over his disappointment for ten long years, so that her 
father was unable to persuade her to marry any one else. 
Tradition says his grief was so intense that the willows 
and palms have wept ever since in sympathy with him. 

After ten more years, Asley's father being alarmed by 
the threats of the youth and the mental depression of his 
daughter, sold all his possessions, and taking his daugh- 
ter started on a long journey northward to Russia, think- 
ing in this way to* get rid of the young Moslem. 

But the love-insane Karam, bidding good-bye to his 
parents and home, followed the trace of his "Y'ar," sing- 
ing touchingly: 

"Oh Justice ! I appeal in behalf of my misfortune 
I ha,ve left my friends and fatherland; 
I am a grief-stricken wanderer, 
After my missing, black-eyed Asley. 

"Though far thou mayest sojourn; 
'Twill not discourage me to follow; 
If necessary, I will enter into thy Church, 
And bow with confession before thy cross." 

The maiden's parents settled at length in a Russian 
town — a lonely family in a strange land. One evening 
while Asley was sitting on the roof of the house enjoy- 



16 Persian Women. 

ing the mountain scenery, she heard below her the tune 
of a Persian love song, sung by a wandering minstrel. 
She instantly recognized her faithful lover's voice and 
her fainting hopes revived with joy. After wandering 
around and singing his love story for awhile, he thought 
he would change his appearance in order to go to her 
home without being recognized by her parents. In this 
way he could at least get a chance to see his beloved 
"Y'ar." Allowing his hair and beard to grow long, he 
assumed the garb of a Dervish, "holy man;" and went to 
the door and knocked. The servant came. He said to 
the servant: 

"I am a man of God, a dervish, and have been suffer- 
ing from tooth-ache for some days and have come to ask 
the mercy of your mistress to relieve my pain.*' (The 
mother of Asley is supposed to have been a dentist.) 

The servant reported the dervish's trouble to her mis- 
tress who went to the door and welcomed him in with 
promise that she would make every effort to relieve his 
pain. She took him to her office and called her 
daughter to hold his head in her gentle arms while she 
was pulling the tooth. 

Both the daughter and the patient wept bitterly. 
The mother thought the dervish wept because of his 
pain, and her daughter from sympathy. 

After the first tooth was pulled, the dervish said: 
"Pull the other by its side, it pains me too." 

She pulled that one and then he ordered still another 



ASLEY AND KARAM. 1 7 

one to be pulled, and another, and another, till all of 
his teeth were gone. Then, having no further pretext 
for remaining he took his head from Asley's lap and said: 

"I have had thirty-two teeth pulled, but did not feel 
any pain because my head was in the arms of my love." 

After singing a song, he begged to be allowed to rest 
his wearied bones over night in the comfortable home. 
Next morning he made himself known to Asley's 
parents, who wearied with the attempt to keep them 
separated, consented to their marriage. 

But the end of their devotion was indeed pitiful. 
The night they were wedded it grew very cold. Asley 
drew her lover's seat near to the great log fire. As the 
legend goes, the inward burning fire of his long smoth- 
ered passion was kindled by the outward warmth into 
visible flame. Asley, terrified at seeing her newly made 
husband burning to death, as she supposed, hastily 
snatched a pitcher of oil, supposing it to be water, and 
poured it upon him. This so greatly increased the rag- 
ing fires that her own intense love also burst into flame. 
She threw her arms about her husband and together 
they were consumed to ashes. Such was the devoted 
faithfulness and loyalty of the two lovers, and such was 
the unfortunate end of their career. 

There is a beautiful fountain in Geogtapa, a village 
about four miles from Oroomiah, which to this day bears 
the name of Asley. Travelers visit the place with great 
interest and often with tears of sympathy and admiration. 



CHAPTEE II. 

If we were to draw our conclusions as to the status 
of woman in Persia from the romantic mythology of the 
past and the sentimental literature and passionate love 
songs of the present, we would be led to imagine that 
she had the highest respect, honor, and admiration of 
society, and was at the zenith of glory and happiness. 

On the contrary, in Persia, as in all the Orient, the 
men deem it obligatory to make a profound apology 
whenever they make mention to their companions of a 
dog, a hog, a donkey, or a woman. With them, woman 
is no more than an idol of sensuality and a slave of 
passion. 

Custom and Religion are the "Maga Charta" for deter- 
mining woman's condition and position in society. In 
Persia, these are two mighty powers in remarkable 
unison and harmony, wielding a tyrannous sceptre over 
the blinded masses. The one represents the infallible 
dictates and sacred institutions of their ancestors; the 
other, the inspired principles claimed to have been given 
from heaven by the hand of the angel Gabriel to Moham- 
med, the "Apostle of God." Both of these indorse the 
inferiority of woman. The successive ages and the tre- 
mendous revolutions of history have been able to do 
(«8) 



The Baby Life of a Woman. 19 

little, or practically nothing, in developing or changing 
woman's social, mental, or spiritual status in society and 
home. 

The object of the following pages will be simply to 
picture woman's condition from the cradle to the grave, 
and from birth to death, from the standpoint of both 
custom and religion. 

There are periods in the life of woman in which great 
evolutions take place in her manners, habits, capabilities, 
and attainments. They are definite stages of life, each 
one with its own decided peculiarities and influences 
upon woman's physical, mental, and moral faculties. 
We will follow the order of these different epochs in our 
study of Persian Women. 

THE BABY LIFE OF A WOMAN. 

The baby life of a woman, according to the "Shahr," 
the law, of the Persians, must not be over two years, 
which is the extreme limit for nursing a child. And it 
can be reduced to twenty-one months. Any one going 
below that is "guilty of a grave misdemeanor." 

The birth of a child is usually awaited with a great 
deal of agonizing anxiety. At the announcement of the 
birth of a baby boy the servants have a glorious time. 
They joyfully take the tidings to their master from 
whom they are certain to receive gifts and hear good 
words. The congratulations of friends and relations 
will begin to pour in from all quarters to the happy 



20 Persian Women, 

father, and it will be an occasion for rejoicing and fes- 
tivity. The father will deem it a privilege to entertain 
his friends as an expression of his personal gratification. 
Noise, festivity, and music will fill the atmosphere with 
the echoes of a merry company. Everybody is happy 
because a son is born; one who will succeed the father, 
keep up the family record, and perpetuate the memory 
of the race. 

But when a daughter is born there will be no giving of 
gifts, no festivity, no music, and no entertainments. 
Everything about the house, the very atmosphere, will 
be doleful and gloomy, as though the mourning over the 
loss of a precious child was already begun. The servants 
dread to take the tidings to their master, realizing the 
disappointment that will follow. When the father hears 
the message he will be in a woeful condition. Taking 
his pipe he will engage in an endless puffing, as though 
thus to mitigate his sorrow. The poor mother's grief 
is most sincere and pitiful. She weeps bitterly when 
her friends come to her, appreciating her situation. 
They address her with comforting words and encourag- 
ing prospects. Both mother and infant will be objects 
of hatred to the cruel father and the rest of the family. 
\No word of comfort will be given to her by them, no 
kiss of affectionate love, and no help in the time of pain 
and sorrow. Their ancient proverb fully illustrates 
their feelings on such an occasion. "The threshold 
weeps forty days when a girl is born," 



The Baby Life of a Woman. 21 

It is the custom for the friends of the married couple 
on. the wedding day to sincerely express their good 
wishes by repeating the common saying, "May your 
wedded life be long and peaceful, with many sons and 
no daughters!" In short, the birth of a daughter is sup- 
posed to be a calamity. If a gentleman is asked as to 
the number of children he has, he will give the number 
of sons, never mentioning the fact of having a daughter. 

One of the Persian grandees on hearing tidings of the 
birth of the fourth daughter was so much enraged that 
he left home immediately, going to a villa about four 
miles distant, and avenged himself by taking a large 
sum of money from a poor citizen, bastinadoing some 
of the others. For the common saying is that "if a man 
is the father of four daughters he wall come to poverty, 
and if he is the father of seven, he becomes the curse of 
the community." One reason given for this dissatisfac- 
tion is that a daughter is lost by marriage, going to other 
people, leaving nothing for the father except the debt 
and expense of her wedding. While the son remains at 
home to take care of the parents in the time of old age. 

The child is salted in the day she is born, according 
to an ancient custom (Ezk. xvi. 4), and subjected to all 
the superstitions so carefully practiced among their 
women. If it is a boy, no one can see his face for at 
least three months because the little thing is so precious 
that peradventure any one looking on him might die. 
A talisman will soon be brought on which are written 



22 Persian Women. 

prayers and verses from the Koran. This is to be fas- 
tened to the right arm or put somewhere near the body, 
to preserve him from sickness, and especially from the 
evil eye. 

No mother allows any one to praise her baby boy; will 
usually dress him in unbecoming clothes and keep him 
dirty, fearing, if he should look too handsome and at- 
tractive the "evil eye" might cause his death or illness. 
She will, however, do all in her power to make him 
comfortable. When he cries she is ready to rock him 
to sleep; singing the sweetest baby songs in his ears, and 
kissing his tender cheeks because he is a son and a 
precious gift of Cfod. 

But the unfortunate little daughter will have no more 
attention than a domestic animal, at first. At the end 
of seven days she will be put into a hard cradle, wrapped 
tightly in swaddling clothes. Sometimes she will not be 
removed, for the whole day and night, and when she is 
it will be only for a little while. When she cries, the 
mother is slow to attend to her, and, at best, the only 
thing mothers do for them when they cry is. to rock them 
in the rough cradle, which does not add much to their 
comfort, nor soothe them into silence. After a con- 
siderable amount of rocking and singing and harsh 
speaking, most likely the mother will get tired and 
angry and leave the little creature alone to cry until it 
can cry no more because utterly exhausted. At night 
it is even worse. For the temptation to sleep makes still 



Thk Baby Life of a Woman. 23 

more irksome the ministering to the needs of the 
despised daughter. 

As for the father, months will pass before he will even 
take a distant look at his little daughter's fa,ce. When 
she is taken out of the cradle and placed so that he is 
obliged to see her, if she has the good fortune to be 
pretty and attractive he may, perhaps, speak a word or 
smile at her, possibly begin, at length, to love her a 
little. But if she is not good-looking he will have noth- 
ing to do with her. When she is old enough to crawl 
to the other end of the room, where he usually sits, she 
has another chance to claim his attention, and by her 
sweet, baby ways to win her way into his affections. 
This is all the daughter has to expect from her father 
until she is grown. 

Such is the condition of the daughters among the 
masses. Among the first-class people, the most wealthy, 
aristocratic, and intelligent, it is somewhat different. 
They receive a good deal of attention, though not as 
much as the sons do. The daughters of these dignitaries 
are raised and nursed in some style. Having a number 
of servants and nurses who' have absolute charge of the 
infants. The mothers usually deem it derogatory to 
their dignity and high position to have anything to do 
with their own babies, except to give them milk at the 
time of necessity. Every daughter of the higher class 
has a "lala" — chief nurse, corresponding somewhat to 
the old negro mammy of the South, but may be either an 



24 Persian Women. 

old man or a woman. These lalas look after the child 
and live with her until marriage, and then go with her 
as her chief servant. 

Thus we see that there are four things in the life of 
a baby girl which occasion unhappiness and discomfort. 

1. The fact that she finds No Welcome on her entrance 
into the world, and brings nothing but disappointment 
to parents and friends. 

2. The Cradle and Bedding. — The cradle is made of 
rough wood, unfit for the resting place of a tender infant. 
Then, the child is wrapped in heavy bed clothes and 
fastened tightly in the cradle so that she cannot move in 
any direction, for her arms are stretched out straight 
and bound to the body. Over these wrappings another 
thick quilt is thrown and over the quilt a calico cover. 
The effect of this custom is to hinder the natural devel- 
opment of the body exactly as the Chinese woman's shoe 
does that of the foot. 

3. The Clothing.— When the baby is taken out of the 
cradle for a little while, she is dressed in some short, 
coarse clothes, leaving the feet entirely naked while the 
head is heavily wrapped. It is the universal custom in 
Persia, even among grown people, to keep the head 
covered, while little attention is given to the feet. 

4.' The Mother 's \ Ignorance. — They have no idea of the 
peculiar diseases and ailments of infants, and no con- 
ception of the proper food to be given nor the proper 
time to give it. Among the masses most of the mothers 



The Naming of a Daughter. 25 

feed the children on the same food that is prepared for 
the grown people; and give it to them whenever they 
cry, without system or regularity. 

5. The Many Superstitions connected with the raising 
of children which are common among the women. For 
instance, they bind the eyes of a child very tightly with 
a kerchief for the first ten or fifteen days. This, they 
suppose, protects them from nervousness caused by see- 
ing the light for the first time. Again, they never take 
girls out of doors for forty days (the sons are not taken 
out for about three months), because they believe illness 
will be caused by the expression of surprise from people 
that see them for the first time. Again, their eyes must 
be always filled with khol. a black powder, which they 
think keeps them from becoming sore and makes them 
pretty when they are grown. These, and others too 
numerous to mention, cause great discomfort during 
child life. 

THE NAMING OF A DAUGHTER. 

As circumcision is universally practiced among Mos- 
lems, boys receive their names at the celebration of this 
rite, when they are seven or eight days of age. But at 
the naming of a girl there is no religious ceremony, and 
no reading of the Koran or even praying by the Moollah 
(priest). 

An old woman will be called to the house, who will 
take the ten-day-old girl in her arms and putting her 



26 Persian Women . 

mouth to the child's ear, will call the name that her 
parents prefer in a very loud voice, repeating it three 
times, adding: "This is your name!" And this is the 
way the little girl gets her name. 

The Persian feminine names are very pretty and 
nearly always have a meaning. Among the most popu- 
lar are "Akhtar," the star; "Gulshan," lilies; "Almas," 
diamond; "Shireen," 'sweet; "Nobahar," the spring; 
"Shamsi," the sun; "Miriam," the old Bible name, and 
of late years, "Mary," the sweetest name of all, has been 
introduced among the Christian element of the country. 

As they have no family names, every girl retains her 
own sweet maiden name all through her life. When 
confusion is caused by several having the same name, 
they are distinguished by being addressed as "Almas, 
the daughter of David," or "Almas, the wife of David." 



CHAPTER III. 
THE CHILD LIFE OP A WOMAN. 

One of the most enjoyable occasions of my life was, 
in the summer of 1895, while visiting friends in Lex- 
ington, Virginia. I was invited to participate in the 
celebration of the fourth birthday of a sweet little girl. 
The little tiring was dressed in a beautiful white dress 
and her joy was inexpressible, as she went to the door 
to welcome her little friends. She was the proudest 
little thing I ever saw. As we gathered around the table 
in the center of which was an elegant cake with four 
little wax candles on it, one for each year of her short 
life, we were a merry company of happy boys and girls, 
and I felt as if I were the youngest of them all and was 
exceedingly happy. The sweet mother and grand- 
mother were so polite and attentive to each little guest, 
it could not but be a joyful occasion. 

In the midst of my pleasure a thrilling thought of 
sympathy entered into my soul; remembering the multi- 
tudes of boys and girls in my own land who received 
hardly any attention at all, no helpful encouragement, 
not even so much as a loving smile. To a Persian 
mother, it would seem ridiculous to spend a whole hour, 
simply in entertaining little girls for the sake of her 

(*7) 



28 Persian Women. 

daughter, though it might cost very little. From the 
standpoint of American parents, the older a child grows, 
the greater the responsibility of the parents. But it is 
quite the contrary in the Orient. There, the older the 
children, the less parents concern themselves about 
them. 

This second epoch in the life of a girl, Child Life, 
usually begins in Persia when the baby is weaned and 
lasts until it is five or six years old. Thus you see, in 
Persia, childhood is of very short duration as compared 
with that of girls in America or any civilized, country. 
As this is the age of small but important begin- 
nings, the time during which lifelong principles 
are stamped upon the plastic heart and mind of the 
girl, either for good or evil, it is of vital and 
infinite importance that adequate opportunties should 
be provided for the mental and moral as well as 
the physical development of the child, and herein lies 
the responsibility of parents. To understand better 
their situation, we will just mention a few important 
points concerning the child life of little girls. 

The first thing I will mention is the playroom, which 
is absolutely Wanting in Persia. In point of fact, there 
is no place in the house where the children can freely 
play and romp. A Persian mother will not permit it 
because she hates the noise, and is too lazy to clear away 
the dirt and disorder they are sure to make. As they 
cannot play at home, they are obliged to go out of doors, 



The Child Life of a Woman. 29 

to the streets, where they can do as they please. Or if 
they prefer to stay at home, they have to he silent and 
motionless, else they will he pretty sure of a good spank- 
ing. 

Although the narrow streets are full of donkeys, 
horses, dogs and every kind of street life, still the chil- 
dren are very well satisfied with their playground as long 
as the summer lasts, since they have never' known any- 
thing of the lovely parks provided by civic law in this 
country for the benefit of the little toddlers. But when 
winter comes and they are obliged to stay in the house 
the poor little things lead a prison life indeed. Even if 
they had' a playroom, they would have nothing to play 
with for they have no playthings. The dear old "Santa 
Clans," who brings a supply of new toys every year to 
American children, never goes to Persia at all. The 
little girls have no dolls except very ugly rag dolls which 
are drssed in the indoor costume of a woman, so they 
cannot even amuse themselves by arraying them in a 
variety of dresses. Yet, though they have no toys or 
playthings, they have a good many games, when they can 
get out on the street. The most popular game for girls 
is with small pebbles. A number of girls sit in a circle, 
stretching one foot to the back of the next girl. Then 
each one in turn, fills her hand with the pebbles and 
throws them up all together, turning her hand quickly 
so as to catch as many as possible on the back of it. The 
one who thus catches the greatest number wins the game. 



3© Persian Women. 

Another distressing deficiency in child life in Persia 
ifi a schoolroom or kindergarten; neither one of which 
has ever yet reached Persia, Indeed, if they had the 
kindergarten, it would have to be filled, at first, with 
ignorant mothers, who are really no more than children 
in their mental training. 

There is still a third serious lack in child life. While 
the Persians have the most elaborate rules of etiquette 
for grown people, the little girls get no training what- 
ever in manners and habits, and the boys not much more. 
The mothers will not take the trouble to teach them 
anything until they are obliged to, and, as they are not 
associated with grown people at that age, either in the 
dining room or parlor, they knOw little of table or society 
manners. They have only opportunity on the streets, 
to learn vulgar language, profanity, stealing, and lying, 
for which they are not punished, the parents rather 
smiling at them because they think it is smart. One 
day, however, I remember we were dining at a house and 
a little child came and wanted to eat with us. Against 
his parents wishes, he was given a place at the table. 
But he ate in such an ugly way that his mother was 
actually ashamed. She jumped up, took hold of him 
and beat him unmercifully, and then began to complain 
that her children were so ill-mannered and not fit to live. 

I said to her, "You never try to tell your children 
how to eat or how to live, and have no right to blame 
them for not knowing." 



The Child L,ife of a Woman. 31 

Not only the Persian children, but the children in all 
the East, are neglected in the same way, the con- 
sequence of which is, that they have none of the ease of 
manner which characterizes the children of the Ameri- 
can people. 

Fourth, and most important of all, is the neglect of 
the religious training of the child. The Moslem idea of 
the soul, or the religious life of the child is very degrad- 
ing. They imagine that until a girl has passed her thir- 
teenth year, there is no use to teach her, or read to her, 
anything concerning religion as she is undeveloped and 
unable to understand it, while the Christian mother be- 
gins, as soon as the little girl can speak, to teach her 
the sweet prayer, "Now I lay me down to sleep," and to 
lead her thoughts up to God. Mrs. Bishop, the well 
known traveler, after some experience in the home life 
of Persians, says: "I have come to the conclusion that 
there is no child life in Persia. Swaddled till they can 
walk, and then dressed as little men and women, with 
the adult tyrannies of etiquette binding upon them, and 
in the case of girls condemned from infancy to the seclu- 
sion of the Andarun, there is not a trace of the spon- 
taneity and nonsense which we reckon as among the 
joys of childhood, or of such complete and beautiful 
child life as children enjoy in Japan. There does not 
appear to be any child talk. The Persian child from 
infancy is interested in topics of adults; and as the con- 
versation of both sexes is said by those who know them 



32 Persian Women. 

best to be without reticence or modesty, the purity which 
is one of the greatest charms of childhood is absolutely 
unknown." 

The greatest need of little girls in Persia to-day, is 
good, mothers, mothers who will not only care for 
them, but know how to train them lovingly. If they 
could only have this, the miseries of life would, in large 
measure, take wings and fly away. 

THE MAIDEN LIFE OP A GIRL. 

The maiden life of a girl begins at the age of six or 
seven, and ends when she is thirteen or fourteen, during 
which period every girl is supposed to be at a proper age 
to marry. The life of a girl at this time, differs widely 
from that of a child. This is the age of activity and 
preparation for life's duties, and the relation of the 

mother to the daughter is closer than before. The 
mother feels great concern about the accomplishments 
and attainments of her daughter. Not so much, it must 
be confessed, from increased affection as from anxiety 
to make sure of the maiden's being well married. 

In the beginning of this period the life of seclusion 
for every woman begins. They will be closely confined 
at home. All chance associations and meetings with 
people on the street, at home, or anywhere else, will 
diminish. The prescribed costume of seclusion for the 
home and the street will be assumed for life. 

What the Maidens Learn. — At the age of six they will 
be put to work- at home to help their mother, and, at 




Mrs. Yon an. 
In Street Gostume, With the Veil Raised. 



The Maiden Life of a Giri«. 33 

the same time to learn what will be useful to themselves. 
The Persian women axe naturally domestic. They are 
taught sweeping, washing, cooking, and making tea at 
the accustomed hour, which is about -i p.m., and pre- 
paring "Kalean;" the water pipe, for the guests and 
parents. And they will be expected to give attention to 
every little thing about the house. They will also be 
taught sewing, which is supposed to be the crowning 
attainment of any girl. They learn to do the most ex- 
quisite embroidery and handwork, for which Persian 
women have always been famous. And this is about all 
the preparation they can make for their future life as 
married women. 

The Education of Maidens. — There are no schools 
in Persia for girls, so that education is not considered an 
essential to the training of a woman. But I will say a 
word concerning the very few, belonging to the most 
aristocratic families, who are taught to read a little. 

Practically, all education, in any way worthy the name, 
is confined to the male sex. The custom that requires 
the strict seclusion of females would prevent their at- 
tending school, even if there were any. Consequently, 
the few wealthy families who feel concerned to give a 
little education to their daughters employ a private 
teacher. This teacher is generally a moollah, whose 
piety is unquestioned, and who is either an old man, or 
in many cases totally blind. As these blind moollahs 
know the Koran by heart, they make very good teachers. 



34 Persian Women. 

Having secured one with these qualifications, he will be 
permitted to go to the woman's apartment of the house 
and take a seat at one end of the room while the pupil 
sits at the other. Some elderly woman, either the 
mother or mother-in-law (for in many cases the girls 
receive their education after they marry) will be present. 
The teacher drills Ms pupil in reading the Koran and 
explains its teachings. Some few learn a little of poetry 
and writing, but this is the highest curriculum the most 
ambitious parent dreams of. 

Occasionally you will find women of somewhat ad- 
vanced age, among these best families, who have carried 
their education still further, and to poetry have added 
much history and painting. This is exceedingly rare, 
and such women are admired and envied greatly by their 
sex. They are usually addressed with titles to denote 
their high cultivation, as, "Mirza Khanim," Most Ac- 
complished Lady; or "Moollah Khanim," Lady Priest, 
etc. But, by far the largest proportion of the women 
are very rough in manner and ignorant. Many of them 
cannot tell their age (which is sometimes true even in 
America). If you ask them why they do not study, or 
if they would like to learn how to read, they will answer 
pathetically, "I am a woman!" which means volumes 
in the Orient. 

Although they, in common with the men, possess the 
Eastern mind, which is peculiarly quick and sharp, yet, 
being undeveloped, they become really stupid and child- 



The Maiden Life of a Girl. 35 

like. The chief barrier to female education in Persia, 
without whose removal the prospects are not very en- 
couraging, is the low estimation in which women are 
held. The shrewd Hindoo struck the keynote on this 
point when he said: "We have trouble enough with our 
women now, and if we were to educate them we should 
not be able to manage them at all!" 

There is a general idea, that for a woman to read is 
rather an infringement of female modesty and pro- 
priety. Should one suggest to a father to send his 
daughter to school, he would shrug his shoulders and 
say, sarcastically: "Shall I make her a priest?" A 
Moslem was once asked by one of the missionaries to 
send his daughter to a mission school. He replied scorn- 
fully: "Educate a girl! you might as well attempt to 
educate a cat!" Now what can these poor daughters 
and wives do, when their own fathers and husbands 
speak so contemptuously of them, which is always the 
case with Mohammedans. 



CHAPTEE IV. 
THE WEDDED LIFE OF A GIRL. 

Marriage is divinely instituted as the climax of all 
human happiness and the crown of all social relations. 
However, this can only be true when it is prompted by 
love and founded on love, pure and unselfish. For this 
is the essential factor in the problem of human hap- 
piness. The degraded customs of Orientals and the cor- 
rupt principles of their religions have led them to the 
conclusion that love has nothing whatever to do with 
the matrimonial relations. And that it is the duty of 
the parents or guardians to act as the only free agents 
in the matter, without any reference to the likes or dis- 
likes of the boy and girl. This subject of the sexual 
relations has been given a prominent place in the Code 
of Laws in Persia. The "Shahr" gives at least 1412 
titles to matrimony and divorce, besides the great num- 
ber devoted to concubinage and slave-women. 

Thus women, although secluded and debased, are yet 
the central figures upon whom every eye is fixed. A 
man can put himself under no greater curse than to 
chose a poor bachelor's life. On the other hand mar- 
riage is supposed to be the whole destiny of a girl. 
To be an old maid is something sinful, hateful, 

(36) 



The Betrothal. 37 

and absolutely out of the question. In fact, 
there are no words in the Persian vocabulary to 
denote "bachelor"' or "spinster" since the Prophet 
hath said "Marry, and establish a family. The 
most wicked among the dead are the celibates." Ac- 
cording to Mohammedanism, "there is no greater benefit 
to man than the possession of a. Mussulman wife, who 
pleases his eye, obeys him and in his absence watches 
faithfully over his honor and his goods." 

The Persian women cannot comprehend the mystery 
of the unmarried American missionaries, when they 
come in contact with them, and do not hesitate to ex- 
press their sympathy to them. Notwithstanding the 
great importance attached to marriage, there is none of 
the sacredness and solemnity which characterize the 
Christian idea of this relation. With them, its main 
purpose is the convenience and sensual pleasure of a 
degenerate people. 

Marriage customs in the details of the wedding, differ 
considerably in different sections of the country. The 
elaborateness of the proceedings depend greatly upon the 
social standing and the wealth of the parties. However, 
there is to a certain extent, a sameness in the essentials. 
To begin at the beginning,- we will first describe: 

THE BETROTHAL. 

The common age of betrothal, for the girl, is between 
seven and ten vears, verv seldom over that. But in 



38 Persian Women. 

many cases a girl is betrothed as soon as she is born, or 
even before her birth. I have known men who were 
friends before their marriage, and while sitting together 
in a social way and drinking, one would suggest the 
plan of making a contract, that after they were married, 
if one had a daughter and the other a son, they would 
marry them to each other. There is a place in Kurdis- 
tan where the girls are sold just so soon as they are born, 
the family of the bridegroom taking the girl to raise. 
However, these are rare instances. 

The Betrothal Ceremony. — There is a, certain cere- 
monial, beginning after the parents or guardians of 
the boy have made up their minds as to whom they 
desire to betroth to their son. They first send a private 
message to the girl's father indicating their wishes. If 
her father favors, the idea, he will return words of 
encouragement, and the date of the ceremony will be 
fixed. Then the father of the boy, taking a few of the 
relatives with him, with a ring, a pair of shoes, a head- 
dress, and some pieces of money, usually from five to 
ten coins (Luke xv. 8-10), with a great deal of candy 
and some other confectionery (the meat, rice, and all 
other necessities for the festival will have been sent 
before, so as to be prepared), goes to the home of the 
girl. After an elaborate salutation, they will be given 
seats and there will be a general conversation, lasting 
for an hour or more, after which the father of the boy 
will mention the object of his coming, addressing the 



The Betrothal. 39 

family with a few polite and appropriate words. The 
father of the girl, who is expected eventually to decide 
the matter, will not make any definite answer at first. 
He will say: "The girl does not belong to me, she has 
a grandfather who must be consulted first." And then 
the grandfather will be addressed and pressed for a 
definite answer. After a few moments of silence he 
will place the matter before the girl's uncle. And so 
it will go the rounds of all the nearest relatives, each 
one being consulted in turn, just for the sake of cere- 
mony and to make them feel good. At last the question 
comes back to the girl's father for a definite answer. 
And he will say, gravely: "My daughter is like a pair 
of shoes for your son." That means I am willing for 
the betrothal. Then it is the duty of the boy's father 
to get up and kiss the hand of every relative of the girl 
who is present. 

Meantime, the ring will be carried to the ladies' apart- 
ment where the girl is, and handed to an elderly woman 
to take to the girl. Addressing her, the woman will 
say: "Your father, your uncles, and your brothers have 
betrothed you to so and so, and if you are willing to 
obey them, you can express it by taking this ring from 
my hand and putting it on your finger." And the girl 
is always expected to do it. Then the presents to the 
girl will be offered and feasting will begin, continuing 
until a late hour in the night. Thus the engagement 
is solemnized, and is as binding as real marriage. The 



40 Persian Women. 

breaking of one is very unusual and is prejudicial to the 
character and reputation of both parties. 

The duration of the betrothal varies greatly. Some 
marry -after six months, while other wait three, four, or 
even five years. We can hardly help wondering that 
a boy and girl feel so little concern during the ceremony 
of betrothal. In many cases it is no doubt because they 
are too young to understand the full meaning of it. 
The relation of the boy and girl between betrothal and 
marriage is not materially changed. As the girl is not 
allowed to go on the street, nor to show her face in any 
public place, the boy rarely gets a chance to see her, even 
from a distance. There is no calling on sweethearts or 
walking with them, nor any pleasant association to- 
gether. It is considered improper for a girl to allow her 
sweetheart to see her. As the love of a Musselman is 
measured largely by the beauty of the woman, a boy or 
young man is naturally exceedingly anxious to see his 
future wife; and will often watch eager ly for a chance 
opportunhy, or even a secret one, to meet or have a word 
with her. 

The "old women" (not necessarily mothers, but rela- 
tives or friendly neighbors) who play an important part 
in these affairs and greatly enjoy them, -are always ready 
to stimulate the curiosity of either party by describing 
or pointing out the other one. In this respect the girl 
has some advantage, if her intended lives in the; same 
town or neighborhood. For, even when shrouded in 



The Betrothal. 41 

the outdoor costume which hides her completely from 
him, there are small openings for her eyes, and she may 
catch many a glimpse of him as he passes in and out 
from the street or balcony. While the young man 
might meet his intended face to face and gain very little 
knowledge of her from the veiled figure. Once or twice 
during the engagement, the young man will be given 
the opportunity of an hour's intercourse with his be- 
trothed, if he wishes it; but it must be in the presence 
of these elderly women. And besides, if he a.vail him- 
self of the privilege, he must bring with him some costly 
present — a piece of gold, a ring or some other jewelry. 
Hence, sometimes from bashfulness and sametimes from 
stinginess, he does not choose to take advantage of it — 
prefers to take his chances some other way. In small 
towns and villages the restrictions of etiquette in this 
regard are not quite so strict as in cities. A limited 
degree of intercourse is permitted. In fact it not un- 
frequently happens that betrothal is consummated be- 
tween a boy and girl who have played together as children 
on the streets. We will have more to say about village 
life later. The young people of America ought to ap- 
preciate the civilization which gives to them freedom 
of intercourse in this most enjoyable period of life. 
This intercourse should be elevating as well as charming. 
I fully realize how much the young people of the Orient 
are missing. Still, we must not forget that danger of 



42 Persian Women, 

harm and evil may be found at both extremes, and be 
Very careful to keep the happy medium. 

"'Tis well to woo, 'tis well to wed, 
For so the world has done; 
Since myrtles grew and roses blew, 
And morning brought the sun. 

"But have a care, ye young and fair; 
Be sure ye pledge with truth, 
Be certain that your love will wear, 
Beyond the days of youth." 

"For if you give not heart to heart, 

As well as hand for hand, 
You will find ye've played the 'unwise part' 
And built upon the sand'." 

The Duties of the Boy's Parents to the Girl. — It is cus- 
tomary, during the betrothal, on any important festival 
or national day, and at the different seasons of the 
year, for the family of the boy to take appropriate gifts 
to the girl. For example, on the great feast of "Norus," 
New Year's Day, which comes on the 14th of March, 
seven kinds of confectionery and fruits are used in feast- 
ing. And these must be taken to the young betrothed, 
and sometimes, in addition a quantity of oil and rice, 
often a sheep, dresses, etc. When the spring comes, they 
must take her spring fruits or vegetables. And this has 
to be kept up until the wedding takes place. Neglect of 
these little attentions will provoke a great deal of grumb- 
ling and discontent on the part of the girl's people, and 
even in the community. 



Thk Wedding Garments. 43 

the wedding garments. 

One of the special features of Persian weddings is the 
extravagance. From the time the engagement takes 
place until the wedding is over large sums of money are 
being spent continually by both parties; more especially 
by the bridegroom's family. The wealthy may not feel 
the pressure much, but there are some upon whom it 
brings a heavey burden of debt for life. Still they think 
it is necessary because a man's character and generosity 
axe judged by the style in which he marries off his son. 
The greatest expense is what is called "Parcha," the 
wedding garments. A few weeks before the wedding 
takes place, both parties will send their representatives 
"out shopping/' as you say in America. And they will 
be engaged for one, two, or three days in making pur- 
chases. Usually, they buy from three to seven different 
suits for the bride, giving but small attention to the 
bridegroom's apparel, as he is expected to see after his 
own. As the expenses must all be paid by the boy's father, 
the bride's party are naturally inclined to be lavish. 
While the other party in seeking to modify their desires 
often raise quarrels or ill-feeling. The expenditure 
sometimes amounts to hundreds of dollars among the 
wealthy. When the "Parcha" is taken to the bride's 
house, all the maidens from the neighborhood get to- 
gether and help cut out and sew for her, though of 
course the larger part must be done by herself, if she is 



44 Persian Women. 

old enough to understand dressmaking, and by her 
mother. Very few people employ dressmakers on such 
occasions. 

THE WEDDING INVITATIONS. 

The wedding invitations are strikingly different from 

those engraved cards sent through the mail in America, 

some of which are not even to be received until after 
the wedding has taken place. Persians only invite those 

who are expected to be present on the great occasion. 

A day or two before, the bridegroom's people will 
despatch -two- or three men to the villages and towns of 
the neighborhood (Matt. xxii. 3) to invite all the friends, 
relations, and respectable citizens. They carry with 
them candy and red apples which are to take the place 
of the engraved cards. Handing a red apple or some 
candy to the family, they announce verbalty the day 
of the wedding, adding these words: "So and so sends 
his love to you and to your family and says, *the wed- 
ding is not my son's, but yours, come and bring your 
family.' " Then bidding them farewell they will go 
to the next neighbor and repeat the same thing, until 
their mission is fulfilled. 

If there is a grandee or official connected with either 
family, the boy's father has to go himself carrying a 
sheep or a quantity of sweets and extend the invitation 
to him. In return he will receive the gift of a shawl 
or tailor-made coat for the bridegroom, with his excel- 



The Wedding. 45 

lency's good wishes and permission to proceed with the 
ceremony. 

It will be interesting to mention that it sometimes 
occurs that some of those invited, from pique or ill- 
humor, will decline to attend the wedding. Then the 
father of the boy will go himself or send a near relative 
to pacify them and persuade them to come to the feast. 
(See Matt. xxii. 1-14.) 

THE WEDDING. 

On thanksgiving day 1896 my wife and myself were 
invited to enjoy the holiday at the home of the well 
known Kentucky evangelist, Rev. E. 0. Guorrant. My 
wife had only been in America a couple of months. 
Everything was new and strange to her. It was an- 
nounced that a wedding was about to take place at the 
minister's home. As there was no music, no dancing, 
no noise or excitement of any kind, my wife gave little 
attention, thinking the wedding was still many days off. 
(In order to excite her surprise I had not told her any- 
thing of the customs of this country on such occasions.) 
In a few minutes Ave were called down to the parlor 
where a few ladies were sitting quietly. Presently the 
bride and groom marched. in from the other room and 
stood in front of the preacher, who standing also, ad- 
dressed them in a few solemn words, offered a prayer, and 
the wedding was over and the happy couple getting into 
their buggy, drove off to their future home. I never 



46 Persian Women. 

saw anybody so amazed and electrified as my wife was 
that day. She still feels as if that wedding was a dream. 

The weddings in Persia usually last from three to 
seven days. 

On the first day the invited guests will begin to pour 
into the home of the bridegroom, which will be opened 
for their cordial reception. Everbody makes himself 
at home. Dancing, music, noisy drums, and the uncon- 
trollable excitement of merry crowds will fill the air 
the whole of the seven days. The first three or four 
days are usually spent in feasting at the bridegroom's, 
while the bride's family are quietly going on with their 
preparations for their daughter. 

The principal part of the entertainment on these days 
is, 

Eating. — The home will be thrown open for, not only 
the guests, but for all the poor people and the beggars. 
Sometimes from five to ten sheep will be slain, or one or 
two oxen (Matt. xxii. 4.) Quantities of rice and other 
vegetables will be used. Three times every day, this 
crowd of people will sit on the floor around the long 
tables to eat, of course with their fingers, according to 
the custom of the country. 

Dancing. — Between meals, they will go out to the 
open court which is like an amphitheater, or if that is 
not large enough, out on the street, to engage in dancing 
and singing, the women and children crowding the flat 
roofs of that house and neighboring ones to look at the 



The Wedding. 47 

dancers. The men, hand in hand, form a large circle, 
the one at the head, the leader, holding a richly colored 
handkerchief in one hand and swinging it in the air, 
moves slowly around, the others following, while the 
drummer and the flute-player stand in the center of the 
circle making a violent noise. Gradually they begin to 
get excited, and become more and more so until they 
jump and leap so rapidly their feet can hardly be seen 
at all. When one is tired another takes his place in 
the circle and thus they go on until noon. Sometimes 
the drum and flute will be exchanged for two good 
singers who sing love songs for the inspiration of the 
dancers. The women are not allowed to dance with 
gentlemen. They can dance in their own apartment 
or when there are no strangers present. 

You will wonder how so many strangers and guests 
from abroad can be accommodated at night. It is cus- 
tomary for each neighbor who is present at the supper 
table, and meets with the strangers there, to take from 
two to five of them home with him when the hour for re- 
tiring comes and take care of them for the night. Thus, 
lodgings are provided for a great many. Sometimes 
there will be none left at the bridegroom's house. Then, 
early in the morning the drummers go about the street 
and summon them back for their breakfast. 

On the third or fourth day they arrange to go after 
the bride. Some thirty or fifty of the choicest young 
men, well dressed and armed, and if the bride's home 



4$ Persian Women. 

"be at soma distance some of them mounted on beautiful 
horses, march toward the house, where they will receive 
a cardial welcome. Everything has been prepared for 
their reception, the village people will come and the 
feasting will begin at the home of the bride. The 
bride's family generally look rather doleful during this 
part of the performance-, probably on account of the 
expense. The next morning the bride will be gorgeous- 
ly decked in her- wedding apparel, in the woman's apart- 
ment, a red veil taking the place of the black one for the 
day, and covering the whole of her body. She is not 
allowed even to have the small openings to see through. 
Bidding her folks goobye, she is put upon a horse 
saddled for her, and at this point begins a tremend- 
ous uproar from the crowd — yells, shouts, thunder- 
ing of guns-, etc. The bride is carefully protected 
from every danger by three men, a "koolam," ser- 
vant, holding the bridle and leading the horse, and 
the other two holding her, one on either side. Thus 
the homeward march begins. 

The univeirsal wedding yell, which is repeated every 
few minutes, resembles the college yell of America, 
"Hulla! Hulla! Hulla! Hulla!" 

Each one of the young men belonging to the bride's 
escort carries a chicken in his hand which either he 
catches himself from the street or some friend catches 
and gives to him. This is called the bridegroom's bird. v 
The procession advances as rapidly as possible. The 




O 



> 

o 

« 

o 

si 

M 

o 



11 1 It 



.hi 

HUM* l! 



The Wedding. 49 

city people often have these processions at night so that 
they can have the opportunity to make them more 
resplendent by fire works, that is by torches, etc. It 
was on such an occasion that the parable of the ten vir- 
gins was suggested to the Master (Matt. xxv. 6). When 
they are near home a messenger is despatched to curry 
the news of their approach to the bridegroom. For this 
he will receive some reward. The bridegroom then 
dresses himself in his wedding costume and, attended 
by his intimate companions, he goes out of his chamber 
looking as happy and gorgeous as the sun coming out of 
the chambers of the night. This part of the proceeding 
differs a good deal in different parts of the country. In 
some places the bridegroom and his staff just go a little 
distance to meet the bride. In other places he goes out 
on top of the roof and waits until the bride arrives in 
sight. Her horse will be led through the multitude to 
a corner of the street, directly opposite of the bride- 
groom, then he will shoot her with three red apples. 
Occasionally he aims too accurately and the poor little 
bride is struck and probably hurt by the red apples. 
Each shooting of an apple is greeted by the wedding yell 
from the excited crowd. 

In some places it is customary to take the bride to 
the doors of the prominent people of the place and 
nearest relations, before going to her father-in-law's. 
This is considered a mark of respect to such persons, and 
at each house the family is expected to show their ap- 



5© Persian Women. 

preciation in some way. Some take a quantity of raisins 
and throw them upon her head, as a symbol of the 
"sweetness of the occasion," while others throw a great 
deal of copper money, a symbol of prosperity. The boys 
especially enjoy this part of the performance, and have 
a great time picking up the raisins and coppers under 
the horse's feet. 

After this they proceed to the bridegroom's house 
and everybody will retire until next morning, when 
dancing and feasting begin again. The main feature of 
this next day's proceedings will be the welcoming of the 
bride's relatives and friends, who will come and bring 
her trunk, and all that belongs to her. Her trunk must 
be opened before a multitude of witnesses, and every 
little thing in it spread out before them. The contests 
of this trunk are not, by any means, entirely for the 
bride's own use, although she and her mother and 
friends have spent a great deal of time on them. They 
are mostly intended as presents for the bridegroom's 
relations and friends, and are the greatest expense which 
falls upon her father in connection with the wedding 
days. In the trunk there will be, perhaps, some half a 
dozen or more dresses, aprons, skirts, headdresses, etc., 
made for her by her parents; the rest are all the presents 
that have been made, consisting of side pockets, waist 
pockets, money bags, watch covers, woolen belts, skull- 
caps, and such like, all of which have been exquisitely 
embroidered by hand. These will be distributed among 



The Wedding. 51 

the numerous relations and home folks of the bride- 
groom. If the bride's father is wealthy, the trunk will 
also contain jewels, precious stones, shawls, cups of gold 
and silver; a "samawaf," or teakettle with all its outfit; 
a "kalean," smoking pipe, etc. It will be as well to re- 
mark that these costly gifts, in many cases, are not so 
much for the purpose of expresing the parents' devotion 
to their daughter, as for the show and pride on their own 
behalf. 

On the next day the guests will begin to depart. In 
leaving, each one extends his congratulations and pre- 
sents his gift. This ends the wedding. The married 
couple, instead of taking a bridal trip to some distant 
land or city, will remain at home, rarely going out at all 
for at least two or three months. 



CHAPTER V. 
POLYGAMY. 

For thousands of years the Orient has been the home 
of polygamy, which has been the source of great domes- 
tic strife, deceit, jealousy, and murder. Under its in- 
fluence true sexual love has given place to sensual pas- 
sion. It has been the means of thousands of heart- 
breaks as well as home-breaks, poisoning the happiness 
of races, nations, and families from the time of Abraham 
to the present day. Polygamy was practiced in Persia 
centuries before the Mohammedan era. We have been 
told that the Persian kings in the days of Esther 
practiced a sort of Polygamy which had been estab- 
lished by their ancestors in the patriarchal age. 
Since the introduction of Mohammedanism into 
the country, which has boldly sanctioned the 
practice in the pages of the Koran, Polygamy has 
been revived and carried to an extreme. The Moham- 
medan representative at the Religious Congress of Chi- 
cago, Mohammed Alexander Russell Webb, entered into 
a general denial of the fact that Islam teaches polygamy. 
He said: 

"It is quite generally believed that polygamy and the 
'purdah/ or seclusion of females, is a part of the Islam's 

M 



Polygamy. 53 

system. This is not true. There is only one verse in 
the Koran which can possibly he distorted into an excuse 
of Polygamy; and that is practically a prohibition of 
it ... I never met but two Mussulmen in my life 
who had more than one wife/' 

Either he did not know how to read his Koran, or he 
consciously perverted its meaning, in making this state- 
ment in the presence of such an august assembly. If 
he would remember, his Prophet was never so eloquent 
as when he expounded his revalations in regard to this 
very thing. We read in the fourth chapter of the Koran: 

"And if ye fear that ye shall not act with equity 
toward orphans or the female sex, take in marriage of 
such other women as please you, two, or three, or four, 
and not more." 

Again: 

"Ye may with your substance provide wives for your- 
selves/' 

Again: 

"The faithful may enter into temporary concubinal 
arrangements with any number of those women whom 
they have acquired as slaves." 

He did not teach it by precept only, but by example 
also. For the Prophet had special revelations granting 
him higher privileges than his followers. 

"0 Prophet, we have allowed thee thy wives unto 
whom thou hast given thy dower, and also the slaves 
which thy right possesseth of the booty which God hath 



54 Persian Women, 

granted thee; and the daughters of thy uncles and the 
daughters of thy aunts, both on thy father's side and 
thy mother's side, who hath fled with thee from Mecca, 
and any other believing woman, if she give herself unto 
the Prophet, in case the Prophet desires to take her to 
wife. This is a peculiar privilege granted unto thee 
above the rest of the true believers." 

On one occasion he slaughtered a Jewish tribe and 
selected a wife from those he had made widows. He 
coveted the wife of his adopted son, and could not rest 
until he had compelled a divorce so that he might take 
her to himself. Such is the attitude of the Koran toward 
polygamy, and such the example of the Prophet with re- 
gard to it. And his followers have not been slow to 
profit by it. 

By the Persian law there are two kinds of marriage. 
One is called "Ahdah," covenanted. A person can 
marry only four women of this class. The other is 
called "Sekah," contracted. A person can possess any 
number he pleases of this class. But the highest priv- 
ileges of the home are granted to the first class only. 
The wives of the second class are often made servants 
to the first. The children of the first class inherit the 
property of the father. At the same time, it is true 
that in spite of the privileges of the law, some choose to 
be the husband of only one wife, either from preference 
or humane feeling. Others take a second wife when 
the first is childless. While others have kept one hun- 



Polygamy. 55 

dred or more at the same time, and some who marry a 
new wife every new year if they can. It is no matter of 
secrecy that can be denied. It is taught by the Koran 
and defended by the priesthood. One, in his apology 
of polygamy, said: 

"It is just like eating; you do not confine yourself to 
one kind of food, but set several on the table." 

We quote the following from Mr. Wilson's "'Persian 
Life and Customs." It is the sentiment of a great 
Mohammedan theologian, translated by "Daccian" of 
Constantinople: 

"Glory to God a thousand times that I am an adherent 
of a religion which draws a wall about no section of my 
liberty, and imposes upon me no bondage in the matter 
of my desire. I take a woman to wife. She is of 
medium height. If my whim inclines to tall ones I get 
one of that sort too. Afterward, if I like, I get one of 
the fat sort, besides these, I may if I choose, pick out 
one or more of some other style, also. All these I may 
have for wives for myself alone. If I tire of any one of 
them, and she of me, and we agree on both sides, we 
can separate. She then can suit herself exactly in choos- 
ing another man, and I can pick out another woman. 

"Thanks be to God, I am not a Christian, that I should 
be bound as a slave to one woman, or any woman be 
bound to me! . . . Besides all these, I can get myself 
just as many fine slave girls as I wish. In fact, what- 
ever my whim calls for I am free to have. But my 



56' Persian Women. 

religion does not command me to do all these things. 
The question whether I will mate with a single woman 
and be a companion to her alone, it hands over to my 
generosity. Ah, it is a beautiful religion ! it is a religion 
which trusts to my generosity. It does not judge me 
to be without feeling and therefore to be fit only to be 
loaded with fetters of bondage." 

THE CEREMONIAL OP MARRIAGE CONTRACTS. 

The ceremony for the two kinds of marriage are very 
different: The ahdali. or covenant marriage, must be 
legalized about a week before marriage, in the presence 
of a moollah, and Avitnessed by two men, or One man 
and two women, the parents or guardians being the 
agents of the contracting parties. The moollah writes 
a contract which is called the "Kabin," in which the full 
amount of the wife's dowry is mentioned. The moollah 
must be a witness that the two contracting parties are 
fully agreed as to the amount and character of the 
dowry, which should always be of a nature that can be 
weighed or measured. Before he legalizes it, therefore, 
they usually repair to the bride's home. He reads a 
passage from the Koran and repeats a prayer. Then he 
approaches a curtain which separates the males and the 
females, and, being assured of the presence of the bride, 
he will ask her consent. She is always expected to in- 
dorse her father's decision, yet, for the sake of the cus- 
tom she has to be questioned about it. The letter of 



Ceremonial," of "Marriage Contracts. 57 

contract will then be given to the girl to keep so that in 
case of divorce, she may use it to secure the amount 
allowed her in the contract. 

There are four essentials to the fitness of a girl for 
marriage of the first kind. Legitimacy of birth, vir- 
ginity, fruitf ulness, and chastity. The law strictly for- 
bids any man to overlook these points. The law is also 
explicit as to the times when marriage may or may not 
take place. Marriage should not be consummated while 
the moon is in the sign of the scorpion; nor during an 
eclipse of the moon, nor on the day of an eclipse of the 
sun; nor at noon time, nor toward the end of the 
twilight; nor during the last three days of the months 
during which the moon is below the horizon; nor be- 
tween dawn and the rising of the sun; nor during the 
first night of each month, exceptng the month of Rama- 
zan; nor during the middle night of the month; nor dur- 
ing a journey, nor in a tempest, nor during an earth- 
quake, etc. 

The second kind of marriage, which is called sehah, 
must have a different contract from the one above. 
According to the law and custom, a man can have any 
number of wives under either one of the following three 
kinds of marriage: 1. Concubinage. 2. Exchange mar- 
riage. The law says: "If ye wish to exchange one wife 
for another, and have given one of them a talent, then 
do not take from it anything." 3. The third kind is 
peculiar to the Mohammedans of Persia. It is called 



58 Persian Women. 

temporary marriage. As when a man has to go on a 
journey, he will make arrangements with a woman to go 
with him as his wife, and remain until the journey is 
finished. Or sometimes a man has his office in the busi- 
ness part of the town while his home is a little distant. 
He will make agreement with a woman near his office to 
be his wife as long as he has his office there. 

Four things are necessary in taking a wife under any 
one of these three conditions. Without them the mar- 
riage cannot be legalized: 1. There must be a letter of 
contract, written by a moollah in a legal way, by the 
consent of both parties. 2. The woman must be a con- 
fessor of one deity, the Allah, under any one of the 
monotheistic religions — -Christianity, Judaism, Zoroas- 
trean. 3. The dowry. A certain amount of money or 
property must be paid by the husband, half during the 
marriage term and the other half when the term of mar- 
riage has expired. 4. The length of time must be set- 
tled and written in the contract. A woman married 
under these conditions cannot be divorced until the legal 
time has ended, when they have to separate. And after 
the time has expired they can renew the contract if they 
want to. 

DIVORCE. 

An old proverb among the Malagassi says: "Marriage 
is not tied with a fast, but with a slipping knot, so that 
it can easily be loosed/' And this is constantly done 



Divorce. 5$ 

among the heathen population of Madagascar. A man 
does not need to bring together a mass of reasons for 
the deed, it costs him no trouble at all. He has simply 
to say to his wife: "Madam, I thank you," and she is 
divorced. If we are so much horrified at what the 
heathen Malagassi do, what shall we say of the Koran, 
one of the so-called greatest books of the world; a book 
which not one of its 200,000,000 believers among the 
human race will dare to touch with unwashed hands, 
which is never laid upon the floor, nor carried below the 
waist? It says: 

"Ye may divorce your wives twice, but if the husband 
divorce her a third time, she shall not be lawful for him 
again until she marry another husband. But if he also 
divorce her, it shall be no crime in them if they return 
to each other." 

The lax marriage laws are naturally accompanied by 
laws equally lax granting permission of divorce. The 
husband mav divorce his wife at anv time and at his 
pleasure, without any reason, if only he fulfill the re- 
quirements of the law. Sometimes a little sickness, 
anger, passion may cause a divorce. Barrenness or 
blindness are sure to do so. Sometimes the jealousy of a 
new wife may cause the divorce of all the old ones. In 
all such cases the husband, under the law, can send 
them away by giving them whatever he has pledged in 
the letter of contract. Or sometimes it may be, a wife 
is not contented and desires a divorce. In such case she 



6o" Persian Women. 

must go to the ' judge, '"turning up her sandal/' which 
is the sign of a peremptory demand for divorce. She 
will say: "Kabinem halal, janem azad/' I resign my 
dowry in order that my soul might be free. Then she 
will be divorced, but without any compensation, as she 
is' the one demanding it. But usually, the wife who is 
dissatisfied and wishes divorce, will try to make herself 
disagreeable and distasteful in order that the husband 
may be provoked to send her away with her dowry. 
c The laws concerning divorce are very numerous. We 
will only quote a few important formulas from Benja- 
min's "Persia and the Persians," which will give suffi- 
cient knowledge of their nature: 

r "The divorce is pronounced by the husband in the 
presence, of not less than two witnesses, both of whom 
must be present at the same time. It cannot be of bind- 
ing force unless pronounced by word of mouth; a written 
bill of divorce is not effective except in the case of one 
who is dumb. The husband must invariably use one 
of" three verbal formulas in pronouncing a divorce; any 
other mode of expression, even if the meaning is clear, 
being invalid. The expressions to be used are: 'Ente 
falekoon/ thou art divorced; or, c Felanet talekoon/ 
such a one is divorced; or, ( Hazzee talekoon/ this per- 
son is divorced. The formula must always be spoken in 
Arabic. A wife must have kept apart from her hus- 
band the period of a lunar month to make divorce 
effective. If he has but one wife, it: is Hot. necessary 



Effects of Marriage Laws. 6i 

for the husband to pronounce her name in the act of 
divorce; but if he has more than one wife, then the 
name of the one to be divorced must be pronounced at 
the time; otherwise, the fiat having been uttered, which 
wife is included in it must be decided bv lot. The 
divorce cannot be pronounced by a husband under ten 
years of age, or of unsound mind. A woman cannot 
be divorced except on the fulfillment of five conditions 
in the marriage, of which the first is that the marriage 
was in all respects legal. A husband may in absence, 
divorce a wife by a mandate borne by a messenger; but 
no divorce pronounced on the authority of a third party 
is binding. If a husband, on reflection, retracts the 
divorce, stating that he had no serious intention of sepa- 
rating from his wife, the divorce is annulled. There are 
three kinds of divorce: the divorce by virtue of which 
the husband cannot take back his wife; the divorce with 
this right in reserve; and the temporary divorce, made 
in order to prove whether the wife is with child by a 
husband from whom she was previously divorced." 

DETRIMENTAL EFFECTS OF THESE MARRIAGE 

LAWS UPON WOMAN'S CONDITION 

AND UPON SOCIETY. 

The evil results of these marriage laws are seen in the 
infinite degradation not only of women as individuals 
but of society as a whole. For as is the sexual relation 
ideally or actually, such is society, peace giving and 



62 Persian Women. 

helpful or the reverse. Now what are some of the de- 
moralizing effects of such marriage institutions ? 

1. In the first place, the laws of Islam are an utter 
perversion of the essential nature of marriage. The 
original marriage bond between man and woman is dis- 
tinctively stated in the words of the creation: "Male and 
female created he them." A bond of essential one- 
ness ("and they shall be one flesh"), between two, dif- 
fering individuals. There are two fundamental princi- 
Ciples set forth in this relation. First, that it is a rela- 
tion between man as man and woman as woman. Sec- 
ond, that this relation is between 'absolutely individual 
man and absolutely individual woman. 

This being the divine basis for the matrimonial rela- 
tion of man and woman, we can easily judge from the pre- 
ceding pages that the laws of Islam have vitiated both, 
in giving license for the practice of polygamy and in 
granting liberty for divorce. Therefore these laws are 
essentially sinful and ungodly. But some might say, 
these laws are justified by their fruits. So we will 
examine the fruits to find fully what they have to show. 
2. The cruelty of it. What would be thought in 
America of a mother who would give away or sell her 
little daughter of eight or ten years, even if she knew 
she would be kindly treated? This the mother of the 
child-wife in Mohammedan countries can never know. 
Besides the little thing is often sent among entire 
strangers, to a strange city, miles and miles away from 



Effects of Marriage Laws. 63 

her home, to become, it may be, the wife of a man many 
years older than herself, and more than likely with no 
other child in the house. 

One little girl of whom I heard, when married at eight 
years and carried to her husband's home, cried bitterly 
and most pathetically: "I long to go to my mother! I 
long to go to my mother! 

Of course these little innocents, with their minds only 
full of dolls and play, cannot possibly understand the 
new relation into which they are brought with this 
strange man. If you would fully appreciate the cruelty 
of it, look at your own little daughter, so happy and 
free, and sheltered in the sate nest of her God-given 
home, and imagine her in the place of one of these 
wretched little child- wives. 

3. It degenerates and retards their physical and in- 
tellectual development. Girls become mothers at an age 
when they should be busy acquiring knowledge and im- 
proving themselves in every possible way. The conse- 
quence is that the women of fifty years of age there have 
actually less intellectual capacity than the child of 
twelve in America. 

4. It takes away from woman her sense of honor and 
womanly dignity. Since law and religion have imposed 
upon the sacred sacrament of marriage such a hollow 
and unmeaning character, the people have come to think 
of it as merely a matter of convenience, and of woman as 
no more than the ligitimate object of man's vile pleasure. 



64 Persian Women. 

5. Then, again, this system of marriage takes away 
from woman her sense of responsibility. Made subject 
to, and dependent upon man in everything, to be guided 
and directed like beasts of burden, their reasoning facul- 
ties are gradually stupined and they become incapable 
of the feeling of responsibility. 

6. Again, this mariage system develops the sinful na- 
ture. It gives license to crime and vice, the awful and 
unspeakable vices spoken of by Paul in the first chapter 
of Eomans. They have enthroned sin and cry to it, 
"Great is the goddess of lust!" 

7. And, in the last place, the outcome of it has been 
the utter corruption of. home and society. This system 
has put the poison of envy, jealousy, and- hatred, be- 
tween children and mothers; and has made the 
home a den of misery instead of the abode of peace 
and love. 

A Moslem woman has no greater ambition than to find 
out the strongest drug, so as to take away the life of the 
favorate wife or of her child. Let us hear the authentic 
testimony of a moollah, on this point: 

"They tell us that there are dragons and scorpions 
in hell. I am not afraid of them. I have a worse hell 
on earth. My two wives with their jealousies and quar- 
rels, give me no peace. I could well leave them for 
other torments," 

You can picture then to yourself the untold misery 
of such homes. The corrupt home suggests corrupt 



Effects of Marriage Laws. 65 

society, since homes and families are essential parts of it. 
Said Henry Ward Beecher: 

"If womanhood has gone down, woe be to us; but if 
womanhood has gone up in intelligence, in virtue and 
religion, then the country is safe, though its fleets were 
sunk and its cities were buried." 

These are some of the numerous and glaring evils 
of the marriage system which stands to-day condemned, 
not only by the law of God, but by every social and 
philanthropic sentiment of civilization. 



CHAPTEE VI. 
THE MARRIED LIFE OF A GIRL. 

Marriage changes, not only the environments, but the 
relations, duties, and responsibilities of a girl. This is 
not merely from human arrangement, or from habit in 
the history of past ages; but it is divinely ordained that 
a man should leave his father and his mother and give 
up all his old home associations and sacred memories 
and cleave to his wife; and so is a wife to do. It is a 
relation which is closer and higher than the filial. 

After marriage a husband's highest duty is to his 
wife, and a wife's to her husband; like two halves unit- 
ing in one complete whole, which nothing in the whole 
world can put asunder save death or infidelity. They 
thus form together what is called "home," which ought 
to be a holy Eden, a pure fountain of life and joy. 

We have been thus far describing what may be called 
the preliminaries in the life of a Persian girl. Now we 
come to the most important and practical part of her 
life; an absolutely new sphere, from which spring great 
avenues of influence and power in society and the com- 
munity, the nation and the world. Here, too, we see the 

same marked difference between her life and that of her 
(66) 



The Home of a Married Woman. 67 

American sister which we have seen so clearly in the 
earlier part of her life. She is not, in Persia, considered 
the queen, the counselor, and the inspiration of the 
domestic circle, but something of an inferior order, 
and in most respects a despised slave of the household. 
Every particular in the life of a married woman seems 
to be arranged by custom so that it will add wretched- 
ness to her lot and keep her within the limits of slavery 
and seclusion. It shall be our aim to give a picture of 
the Persian woman as she is at home. 

For convenience we have divided the subject into six 
different heads or aspects, beginning with the house 
they live in. 

THE HOME OR DWELLING-PLACE OF A MAR- 
RIED WOMAN. 

The Persians have a strong tendency to congregate 
in cities, towns, and villages. From the rich capitalists 
and the high official to the poorest peasant and laboring 
man. they all prefer to live together in communities. 
There is literally none of what is called country life in 
America. Most of these cities, towns, and villages have 
a high, thick wall of mud all around them, with gates for 
entrance, which are carefully watched. The reasons for 
this are, I suppose, first, for protection in time of war. 
Tn the olden days the country was settled largely by dif- 
ferent hostile tribes, who would often attack each other, 
and the walls were a great protection to their property. 



68 Persian Women. 

There were also numerous robbers and highwaymen 
whose whole business was thieving and pillage., thus 
constantly endangering life and property. There is 
still this danger and the citizens to insure their safety 
live in communities for mutual defense and protection. 
And, again, the custom of secluding the women has a 
great deal to do with it. 

Their houses are planned and built so as to insure the 
strictest privacy. Each one is guarded by a great wall 
just as the cities are, for the protection of the individual 
family. The Persians, and Orientals in general, are 
not so open and ingenuous in their household affairs as 
the American people. However, there is considerable 
difference in this respect between the different classes 
of Persians. The poor and ignorant become compara- 
tively careless, but the more aristocratic and wealthy a 
man is the more strenuously he guards the seclusion 
of his home. 

Before describing their homes, it might be well to 
remark that the Persians, like most of the Orientals, 
have no word in their vocabulary corresponding with 
the English word home. The fact is, the very thing 
itself is wanting. The only word they have answering 
to it at all is house. There can be no home feeling, 
where woman is ignorant, stupid, and slavish, because 
it is she that can make a home. Hence they cannot 
very well sing: 

"Home, sweet home! There is no place like home!" 



The Home of a Married Woman. 69 

There are three classes of people in Persia. Each 
class has its own peculiar house, according to its wealth 
and standing in society. 

The Houses of the First Class. — The first visible part 
of a house from the street is a high, thick wall that en- 
circles the whole lot. Through this there is only one 
entrance, a large gate, made of heavy, hard wood and 
studded with big-headed iron nails. This gate is kept 
shut all the time, and anybody that wanted to get in 
would have to knock hard in order to call the family, 
who in most cases live in some distant part of the prem- 
ises. Walking along the street one can easily tell the 
official houses because they have always about a dozen or 
more men guarding the gate. These guards eat, sleep, 
and live in the small rooms opening into the gaterway 
at each side. 

No neighbor is allowed to build his house higher than 
the mud walls, or if he does, he is not permitted to open 
any window, not the least opening, into his neighbor's 
yard which could make it possible for him to look in 
upon his wives. "They are very careful to guard their 
Bathshebas from the sight of any David." Entering 
through the gate, the interior will show the house con- 
structed around a court or garden. 

The first apartment we come to is called "'beroon," 
or the men's apartment. Here the head of the family 
during the day commands his servants, transacts his 
business, and receives his calls. He comes to this apart- 



7o Persian Women. 

ment by sunrise, having previously had his cup of coffee 
or tea and offered his prayers. And here he stays until 
his dinner hour, which is at twilight. 

The second apartment of the house is called "ande- 
roon," which is exclusively for women and children, and 
is also called "harem/' "forbidden place/' a word cor- 
responding with zenana or seraglio. The women live 
here all their lives, very seldom going out for recreation 
or a breath of fresh air. No person could venture to go 
to this apartment. If a man, by mistake or unwittingly, 
should attempt to make his way toward the "forbidden 
place," he would be quickly met by the guardians and 
eunuchs, crying loudly: "Women, away!" And the man, 
with breathless haste would make his way back. While 
the women would begin at once to conceal their persons 
with the veil. 

The custom of secluding the women and watching 
them so carefully has come down from long generations. 
The kings in ancient days, in order to exhibit greater 
state and to preserve a pure lineage, introduced 
it first into the country, and it was gradually 
adopted in some form, by all classes except the 
wandering nomads. 

The inner walls of the houses, fronting on the court, 
are of sun-dried red brick or stone. They are painted 
in the real Persian figures and in many different colors, 
thus making a picturesque scene for the eye. However, 
they are seldom seen by any except those who live within 



The Homk of a Married Woman. 71 

them, as few people ever venture inside the walls even 
on business. 

The rooms are long in shape, with high ceilings; .the 
walls are always very thick, not only in order to be 
strong enough to sustain the heavy roof, but also to leave 
space in the depth for takchas, or open closets, which 
have to answer for wardrobes. 

The roof is always flat, made by putting large beams 
of poplar across from wall to wall, about two feet apart, 
then planks and cheap matting, then earth, beaten or 
packed down hard, and then a kind of plaster, mixed 
with straw on top, from which the rain drains off to 
pipes around the sides. 

The windows are only on the side of the house looking 
toward the garden or court. Some of them are very 
richly ornamented with fancy wood work and small- 
paned stained glass. 

The rooms in the harem are all beautifully decorated 
within. The ceiling and walls are stuccoed in honey- 
comb patterns, some in pure white, others delicately 
tinted. Often small mirrors are inlaid to add to the 
beauty. They are elegantly carpeted in the Persian 
style, that is, with a large center piece and two kenaras 
or side strips, and a head piece at the side farthest from 
the door. The finest rugs are manufactured at Sinnah, 
Hammadan, and Yezd, and are very different from those 
often sold in the American market as genuine. The 
real Persian rugs have a thick, soft fur, in rich, unfad- 



72 Persian Women. 

ing colors of a shimmering brightness. They are both 
pleasant to look at and comfortable to sit on. It is the 
fashion at certain seasons to cover the rugs with a white 
cotton cloth called "Rue Parsh, the face of the carpet." 
This is done by almost everybody, partly for the change, 
and partly for the protection of the rugs. There is not 
a single chair or table in any of these rooms. The Per- 
sian women prefer sitting on the floor to sitting on a 
chair, and there is nothing about their garments to make 
it uncomfortable for them. And if they wish any addi- 
tion to the rugs they have cushions and divans. 

The Persians are not very particular about having 
separate rooms for everything, although there are gen- 
erally plenty of rooms if they wanted them. They pre- 
fer eating, sitting, and sleeping in the same room. 
There is no difficulty in doing this, as they have no bed- 
stead to occupy the space in the room. The bedding 
is all folded together in a calico sheet, and during the 
day is rolled up against the wall so that it can be used 
like the back of a sofa, and in the evening spread out 
again. Some luxuriant pillows, made long and round, 
are placed around the rest of the walls and make quite 
comfortable seats nearly all round the room. So that 
after all we need not pity them for having to sit on the 
floor. 

Around the walls, just about three feet from the ceil- 
ing is a row of shelves and upon them will be found many 
variously colored bottles, containing the most delicious 




Street Costume. 



The Home of a Married Woman. 73 

Attar of Roses and many other perfumes. Attar of 
Roses was first made in Persia. 

On the corners are placed bric-a-brac, and vessels of 
alabaster, and bronze figures in different sizes, shapes, 
and colors. And then there are many hangings of 
richly embroidered silks and shawls, which brighten the 
appearance of the rooms. They have no bureaus. Their 
looking-glasses are set into the wall or hung over a 
shelf. Every little arrangement in the furnishing of the 
rooms shows art and elegance and the signs of high taste 
and skill. 

The best part of every residence is the large yard 
attached to it. In this particular they are ahead of 
Americans. The windows all open on the court, which 
is nothing more or less than a luxuriant garden, full of 
all kinds of roses, vines, and shrubbery, with shade trees 
and fruit trees planted in rows, forming long avenues 
from one end to the other of the yard. In the center of 
this court there are one or two small lakes, full of many 
colored fish. The rill from a fountain ripples unceas- 
ingly over the paving stones giving refreshment to the 
flowers and trees planted beside it. 

To this spot the Persian poets have given the epithet, 
tfc behisht," paradise. Here the women sit upon their 
soft divans during the heated days of the summer and 
listen to the murmur of the waters and the sweet songs 
of the nightingale, while breathing the air laden with 
the sweet perfume from the roses. However pleasant as 



74 Persian Women. 

it is, it is their all, here they must stay summer and 
winter, year after year, until the last pulse beats on earth. 
We have a saying in Persia which describes the condi- 
tion of these women: "The bird never feels at home in 
a cage, even if it be of gold!" 

THE HOUSES OF THE COMMON PEOPLE. 

The middle class are composed of the merchants and 
business men. The only difference between their houses 
and those of the first class is that they are on a rather 
smaller scale, with fewer rooms, etc. So we need not 
mention them. 

The third class are farmers and day-laborers. Here 
we find a very great difference. This class live ex- 
clusively in the villages and small country communities. 
Their homes are made almost entirely of mud, not sun- 
dried brick, in a simple and unattractive manner. The 
soil is moistened into mud, and worked to a. proper con- 
sistency by the feet of men and animals. Piece by piece 
is handed to the mason and laid on by hand, till it 
reaches a height of four feet and a thickness of three, 
the imperative custom of the Persian builder; this is 
allowed a few days for hardening when another layer 
of similar height, but narrower, is laid upon it and so 
on until the house is finished. In most of thern the 
gateway opens immediately into the house from the 
street, few having separate walls around them. The 
outer walls of the houses are so rough that the birds find 



The Houses of the Common People. 75 

many nooks and corners in which to build their nests. 
The main part of the house is a large square room. It 
has no windows except four small unglazed openings, 
two of which are in the roof and have to serve for chim- 
neys also. Even in the middle of the day there is not 
sufficient light. There is only one entrance to this room 
which is very narrow and low, so much so that often 
a man must bend his body to be able to go through. 
A lady missionary said in regard to these doors: "Future 
archeologists, studying the ruins of these houses, may 
conclude from the doors that they were built for a race 
of dwarfs." One side of the room is carpeted with a few 
cheap rugs, carpeting or matting for the sitting of the 
whole family, for there is no harem or separate apart- 
ment for the women in these houses. They all live 
together. Consequently their women are not quite so 
strictly secluded and guarded as those of the upper 
classes. However, if any stranger comes in they must 
at once conceal their persons and go to the opposite end 
of the house. 

At one end of this same large room is the tandoor, 
which takes the place of the cooking stove and the 
heater also. It is circular, narrows somewhat at the top 
and bottom, has a flue leading to the bottom from the 
outside, and is usually about four feet deep and two and a 
half in diameter. It is smoothly lined with clay inside. 
Over this is the Kursi, a skeleton wooden frame like an 
inverted table, from four to six feet square, covered with 



76 Persian Women. 

a thick cotton quilt, which extends four or five feet 
beyond it. Cushions are placed under this and women 
huddle under it all the day, and in some places the whole 
family all night, which are kept comfortably warm. 
Every morning the fire is made and kept up for about 
two hours. And as there are no chimneys the room is 
pretty well filled with the smoke for that, length of 
time, until it gradually makes its way out through the 
openings in the roof. The men can go out and escape 
this annoyance, but the poor women have to stay and 
endure, while they do the cooking and attend to other 
duties and surfer a great deal with sore eyes. The 
words of Proverbs are forcibly illustrated by these: "As 
smoke to the eyes/' etc. Thus, instead of beautiful 
painting, smooth plastering, and handsome hangings, 
the whole ceiling as well as the rough walls are black 
with the smoke and soot. 

The furniture is very simple. Only a few mirrors in 
the walls, and some bottles and earthen vessels on the 
shelves, with many bundles of bedding heaped one over 
another on one side. At night, when spread out it 
nearly covers the floor, as this is the only sleeping room 
for the whole family as well as dining room and kitchen. 
In the summer they take their beds and spread them on 
the large flat roofs, which is much more comfortable 
than the crowded room below. "Let him which is 011 
the housetop not come down to take anything out of his 
house" (Matt. xxiv. 17). 



The Houses of the Common People. 77 

These houses have only a dirt floor and become very 
damp in winter, especially when the rain pours in 
through the openings in the roof, even though they 
catch all they can of it in vessels set for the purpose. 

Attached to this room is generally another smaller one 
used for storing things, winter provisions, etc. And at 
some little distance from the house is the stable and the 
barn, full of hay and straw for the cattle. 

This completes the house of the poor Persian family. 
Among the very poorest and the mountaineers, the one 
large room which we have described is the whole house. 
One corner will be used for the sheep, cows, chickens, 
and goats; another for the packing room and the center 
for parlor and bedroom, and the kitchen off to one side. 
It must have taken a great deal of grace and love to have 
enabled Miss Fidelia Fiske to spend so many days in 
such houses that she might teach and carry the gospel 
to these most ignorant women on earth. As you may 
well imagine, the filth in such houses is beyond descrip- 
tion. 



CHAPTER VII. 

women's attire. 

The Persian women are obliged to confine themselves 
to the costume prescribed for them by custom and the 
laws of the county. Therefore they do not suffer from 
the inconvenience, neither do the men sutler from the 
extravagance of the whirling fashions. The outdoor 
costume and the indoor costume are altogether different. 
While one is lacking in comfort the other is lacking in 
delicacy. 

Outdoor Costume. — All the Persian women with the 
exception of the few who are not Mohammedans, are 
expected when they go out, whether on horse or donkey 
back or in a carriage or on foot, to put on what is called 
the outdoor costume. It consists of four simple articles. 

The Chader is a dark blue or black sheet of cotton or 
silk (according to the rank or wealth of wearer), about 
two yards and a half one way and two yards the other. 
This is put over the head and falls to the ankles, en- 
veloping the whole body, and is held tightly in the hands 
from inside. 

The Veil is of white cotton or linen, tied around the 
head over the dark chader, covering the face and hang- 
ing a little way down in front. Across the eyes is a nar- 
row strip of lace work through which a woman can see 
and get her breath, but no one can see her. 
(78) 



Women's Attire. 79 

The Jorab, or "bloomers/' are a pair of loose trousers 
with stockings of the same material attached to it. The 
stockings tit tightly on the feet and are gathered at the 
ankles. The material for this garment is usually of 
brighter color than that of the chader, or nearly so. 
But it is entirely by the chader down to the ankles. 

The Shoes are sandals, made of sheep skin and usually 
colored red or yellow. They cover the toes but have 
nothing to stay them at the heel so that at every step the 
heels of the sandals clatter in a musical way. These 
women have no need of shoebuttoners, they can easily 
slip their shoes off and on. 

This makes the complete street costume. When the 
women are thus shrouded no one can see any part of 
their person. Travelers are often greatly disappointed 
when they for the first time see the women in public. 
A gentleman from America who recently traveled 
through the Holy Land, came to the conclusion they 
were more like shocks of corn in the fields of Kentucky 
than like women. 

The women frequently contrive to find opportunity 
to push aside their veil in order to breathe a fresh breath 
of air. This is admissible if there be no men about. 
But they sometimes do it for the purpose of disclosing 
their charms and beauty to attractive young men who 
may be passing by. 

While this costume may appear, and is, inconvenient 
and uncomfortable in the extreme, especially during the 



So Persian Women. 

hot seasons of the year, yet, without it women could not 
go out at all so long as the present social system is in 
force. Besides, it has its advantages. It is economical 
for the poor. No matter if a woman has the veriest 
rags underneath, if she has only the costume on, they 
cannot he seen. And the same costume can generally 
be worn for a lifetime. Moreover, it enables the poor 
to go out with the rich without embarrassment and with- 
out mortification, since with the costume on they all 
look pretty much alike. Again, it gives' to women a 
measure of liberty which they could not have without it. 
When they are thus veiled they can go out if they please 
and even their husbands could not recognize them nor 
dare to speak to them nor raise the veil on the street. 

The Persian laws fully guarantee the protection of 
any woman, who, wearing the street costume and con- 
ducting herself with propriety should be assailed or ill- 
treated by any man in public, and a Persian gentle- 
man dreads no other disgrace more than being accused 
by a woman in a public place. I know a young man, 
who was walking on the street one day half drunk and 
a mean woman, realizing his condition, took advantage 
of it and cried out that he had assailed her and spoken 
impertinently to her. In five minutes a great mob was 
formed who dragged the young fellow off to lynch him. 
The governor being informed sent his soldiers who with 
difficulty rescued him from the mob. In examining 
Mm they smelted the liquor on his breath which was 



Women's Attire. Si 

evidence enough against him. He was severely punished 
and compelled pay a heavy fine. 

A few words in regard to the women of royalty may 
be interesting. Whenever they go out they are most 
scrupulously guarded by a large attendance before and 
behind their carriages. The forerunners who march in 
parallel lines on each side of the street, their silver rods 
in their hands, shout loudly: "Bar-mi-gardant," turn 
your faces to the wall! at each step. No mortal being 
will be left in position to get a glimpse even from a 
distance, of the rushing carriage. For the shops must 
be closed and every person on the street must turn in- 
stantly as if to examine the mud wall, until the last of 
the cortege has past. And the same when they return. 
The Indoor Costume. — The women are as free and 
open in the indoor costume as they are concealed and 
disguised in the outdoor. There is hardly any com- 
parison between the two. The whole costume within 
doors consists of several full short skirts reaching to the 
knee or a little, above. Sometimes a great many of these 
skirts are worn at the same time, even as many as ten, 
and then they stand out in the extreme manner of the 
ballet girl. The rich women exercise a great deal of 
taste in the colors, trimmings, and embroidery of their 
skirts, for example, a favorite dress trimming consists of 
a bordering many inches deep of real pearls. When an 
English lady visited the princesses in the harem, the 
simple trimmings of her gowns attracted a great deal of 



82 Persian Women. 

attention; they were particularly amused at the number 
of seams in her bodices. "Look/' they said, startlingly, 
"the English lady had so little stuff that she was obliged 
to join and patch her dress?" Of course they did not un- 
derstand that those seams caused the gown to fit and show 
off the figure. Some are made of perfectly gorgeous 
silks, satins, and velvets, inwrought with gold and silver 
threads in elaborate patterns. Those who cannot afford 
this, make them simply of cheap calico and muslin. 
The Persian women are fortunate enough as not to make 
themselves slaves to the artificial waists. Once, when an 
English lady was trying to initiate a stout woman into 
a corset, before she had properly drawn the cords, the 
Persian lady gasped, turned black in the face, and begged 
pathetically, "Kelease from the torture." 

Some of the women wear .very tight pantaloons of a 
very thin white material, with beautiful lace work 
falling upon the feet, while others do not care to 
wear these. 

The shirt or undergarment is a short chemise of tin- 
selled silk gauze, or gold, embroidered muslin so trans- 
parent as to leave nothing to the imagination, and is 
very loose and short. This is the whole of the indoor 
(Costume for the summer. In winter, over the shirt and 
tthe skirts a Jchaleja or loose waistcoat is worn. It is of 
wery richly colored maierM, with its fronts -about ten 
inches apart, *o as to show the flowered chemise, and has 
long sleeyies gathered and buttoned at the wrist. 



Women's Attire. 83 

The most interesting part of the whole indoor costume 
is the headdress. First comes a cap made of velvet or 
shawl material, embroidered at the borders, with some 
pieces of money dangling at the front. It is put on the 
head so that the pieces of money will fall on the fore- 
head. Over the cap is a large triangular kerchief. It 
is tied under the chin, covering the ears entirely, and 
one side of it furnishes what is called yashmak, the mouth 
cover. We might term it the bridle, for it is intended 
to answer that purpose. And this mouth-piece must be 
kept in place, sometimes covering the nose also, as a 
sign that they are not to talk, and as a sure sign of 
absolute subordination to their husbands, under all cir- 
cumstances, right or wrong. While this is worn by all 
women, brides are required to keep it on more strictly 
than others. They are not allowed to speak a word 
aloud for years after marriage. Some of them never 
speak to their fathers-in-law and mothers-in-law in all 
their lives. This is considered the most proper way for 
a woman to show her respect for them, and for all the 
relations of her husband. The saying is, "As thick as 
the yashmak, so high is the respect paid to a woman.*' 
There is a current legend among the Christians of Persia 
as to the origin of yashmak. It says: "Once upon a 
time, many years ago, there was a very handsome woman, 
with a beautiful chin and mouth, and for the love of her 
a monk broke his vows and lost his soul; since then the 
heads of the families in Christian communities have 



84 Persian Women. 

compelled their married ladies to veil the mouth and 
chin." 

The younger wives are also required to show respect 
to the older ones, by talking to them in a whispering 
tone. It is a wonder that they do not lose the voice and 
the power of conversation altogether. They believe that 
this is the only way to preserve peace in a house where 
so many live together. Nevertheless, the Persian 
women have gained for themselves the reputation of 
being the most mischievous of talkers, and the men 
firmly believe in the old saying: "When a dish is 
broken, the cat did it; and when there is a quarrel, a 
woman is at the bottom of it." When men, among 
themselves talk about the garrulousness of women, they 
relate the following story: 

"Once when a number of women were assembled in a 
house, all standing and talking as loud as they could, 
all at once, in the middle of the house, a straw fell from 
the hole in the roof. The woman nearest to whom it 
fell saw it and said to the one standing by her: f Saman 
(a straw) fell down.' That woman told it to another, 
and so on, and when the words reached the other end of 
the house it had been transformed to this: 'Zaman' 
(the name of a well known man in the town) 'f ell down 
from the roof and broke his neck!' It so happened 
that the daughters of Zaman were present and they 
began to wail and beat their heads over the death of their 
father." 



Physiognomy and Ornaments. 85 

And so they do not take as authentic everything that 
is spoken by women. Not alone in Persia but in 
America also I hear sometimes complaints of the same 
sort. Some men would, possibly, be glad if they could 
adopt the Persian method of controlling women's 
tongues. However, it is no laughing matter indeed, to 
have a mouth and tongue and not be able to use it. If 
the gentlemen could have the same experience for a little 
while they could the better appreciate their cruelty. 
"Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no 
understanding; whose mouth must be held in with bit 
and bridle, lest they come near unto thee" (Psalm 
xxxii. 9). 

Persian women do not generally wear stockings in the 
house. They seem to prefer bare feet. This custom is 
prevalent all through the East, The men as well as the 
women are careful to cover their heads at all times, even 
at home, while little attention is paid to- covering the 
feet, Exactly contrary to American ideas. 

PHYSIOGNOMY AND ORNAMENTS. 

The Persian women are endowed with a natural beauty 
and attractiveness, nowhere surpassed. They resemble 
greatly their fair Georgian neighbors, who have been so 
famous for their beauty. Their complexion is clear, the 
features regular and the eyes always as black as jet. 
Blue eyes are not at all popular. The eyebrow? are 
arched, black, and heavy: the hair straight and black. 



86 Persian Women. 

sometimes banged, and hangs down in many small 
braids, often reaching to the ground. Light hair is con- 
sidered good cause for not marrying a girl, or even after 
she is married may cause her divorce; being so much 
disliked by the Persians. Eound faces are considered 
the most beautiful and rosy cheeks as everywhere else. 
And the Persian women generally have an attractive 
smile. The lips are thin and the teeth almost perfect. 
I can truthfully say there is not a solitary woman in 
Persia with artificial teeth or gold-filled ones. The 
women, as well as the men, prefer fatness, contrary, per- 
haps, to the American ideal, and go far as to seek a 
physician's prescription to prevent leanness. 

Thus naturally beautiful, they sadly disfigure them- 
selves with paints and dyes. This is not looked upon in 
Persia as it is in America. There it is required by the 
all-powerful custom, and all the men prefer that they 
should do it. They have certain set days in the year to 
make each paint and powder, a year's supply at a time. 

Etiquette demands that .the hair may be dyed as often 
as once a month, with a dye compounded of indigo and 
henna, which makes it intensely black. The same dye, 
used on the fingers and toes makes them a very dark red. 
As they never wear gloves and seldom stockings the red 
color of hands and feet is very conspicuous. 

The eyebrows are painted so as to meet across the 
forehead, with a blue-black compound prepared from 
some kind of herbs, and so heavily that they always look 



Physiognomy and Ornaments. 87 

as if they were dirty. The eyes are filled every day with 
kohl, a black powder. The cheeks are reddened with a 
preparation similar to that used by some of the Ameri- 
can ladies, and to that is added a white powder. When 
all this is done they look more like artificial dolls than 
natural live women, you may well imagine. 

The Persian women, like most others, are very fond 
of jewelry. They wear bracelets, amulets, necklaces, 
ear rings, finger rings, and nose rings. Most of them 
have bangles of gold and silver coins, with beads of dif- 
ferent colors, hanging from the neck to the chest, with 
others sewed upon their skull-caps and fringing their 
foreheads. 

To the plaits of their hair they attach ribbons with 
coins of gold and silver, and other silver figures made for 
the purpose, so that when they move about these coins 
and jewelry make a jingling sound. They have belts of 
silver and gold filigreed most skilfully and attractively 
by hand, and set with turquoise and many precious gems. 
Emeralds, rubies, and sapphires are so abundant in 
Persia they attract very little attention. 

Thus while the well-to-do Persian women dress in 
silks and velvets, and have their ears and fingers filled 
with rings, precious stones, and diamonds, there are 
many thousands who live in poverty and misery, whose 
garments are tattered, and upon whose brows, instead of 
gold and silver pieces, are wrinkles, the thorns and briers 
of oppression. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE OCCUPATIONS OF WOMEN. 

In the East there is radical distinction in the occupa- 
tions of the sexes. Some employments are supposed in- 
herently to belong to the man, while others as absolutely 
pertain to the woman. Should a man venture to do 
what ought to be done by a woman, either at home or 
outside of the home, he will be called a "feminine-man/ ' 
a title of positive disgrace. And should a woman at- 
tempt to do what has the masculine mark upon it, she 
would not, I fear, be treated with the toleration and even 
admiration which the "New Woman" receives in 
America, but would be openly called "man-woman," and 
regarded as worse than an "Andromaniac." However, 
there are few or none such cases in Persia. The course 
of such would usually be stopped at the first by the 
severe discipline either of the husband or the father and 
brothers. While it may be admitted that there is a 
divinely appointed sphere adapted to the peculiarities of 
each sex, yet we cannot but condemn the enslavement of 
both man and woman to the extremes of fanaticism and 
custom. 

In the whole country of Persia not a single woman will 

be found in store, shop, or factory, at clerics desk, in 
(88) 




Nestorian Women Grinding. 




Nestorian Giri,s Carrying Water, 



The Occupations of Women. 89 

teachers chair, or in any department of business where 
sense, education, or training is required. The females 
of Persia are all either confined closely at home doing 
nothing, or busy, either at home or elsewhere doing 
hard, degrading labor. 

Nothing strikes a foreigner more forcibly than when, 
for the first time walking the streets of New York or 
San Francisco, he sees thousands of women going about 
freely and at work in all kinds of positions. Such an 
one, not accustomed to the sight, actually shrinks from 
buying anything at their hands. It takes time to get 
used to it. 

The occupation of the wealthy women is very simple 
and limited. They do little or nothing. Not even 
nursing their children or attending to their domestic 
duties, having numerous servants provided for every 
little thing. They only eat, sleep, smoke their water- 
pipe as frequently as they can, and gossip. A few of 
them, having a taste for embroidery and sewing, employ 
most of the day in fancywork. Some can read a little, 
but the majority are deprived of this pleasure. And, 
as intimated before, their faculties are sadly dulled by 
disuse, their capacities undeveloped and their bodies 
feeble from mere want of exercise. Knowing and doing 
little beyond painting their cheeks, powdering their eyes, 
and trimming their skirts, which follies can only belittle, 
life is only a burden, instead of happiness to them. 
"Beebee Khanvm" the English lady who married Ab- 



90 Persian Women. 

dullah Hussein Khan, the cousin of the late Shah of 
Persia, and who lived five years in the harem, in speak- 
ing of the life of the princesses, said: "While there are 
some pleasant features connected with their life, yet there 
is too much that is terribly unhappy. Many of them 
can neither read nor write, and find life terribly dull, 
they sat for hours listening to my descriptions of the 
freedom and happy life of English women, and many of 
them long for liberty and education. Their conversa- 
tions and habits are very unedifying and they badly 
need the discipline of schools." 

On the other hand, the women of the laboring classes 
are veritable beasts of burden. Besides all the domestic 
duties, as cooking, cleaning, and attending to the little 
things about the household, which usually begin an 
hour before sunrise, they have the care and responsibility 
of most of the outdoor or field labor. Their time is thus 
fully occupied, toiling at the dawn, at midday and in the 
twilight, with very little chance to rest. 

There are certain things which have come down from 
past ages stamped as the prescribed duties of women. 
A mention of some of these may give an idea of their 
every-day employment, and at the same time throw some 
light on certain passages of Scripture referring to women. 

Grinding Mill — One of the duties of women in Persia 
is grinding the wheat and barley into flour. In the parts 
of the country where water is abundant, water mills are 
built. And in some other places they have what axe 



The Occupations op Women. 91 

called donkey, buil'alo, or mule mills, which are turned 
by power of these animals. But still there are many of 
the poor who cannot afford to have their flour ground 
at these mills, and the women must grind it at home in 
the old fashioned way of Bible lands and times. "'Two 
women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be 
taken and the other left" (Matt. xxiv. 41). This mill 
consists of two heavy circular stones, with a wooden pin 
in the center fastened to the lower one and passing 
through a large hole in the upper one;. Into this hole 
in the upper stone, around the central pin, the grain 
is poured by handfuls, while the two women turn it 
rapidly by the stout handle fastened to the outer rim of 
the upper stone. The grain, falling between the two 
stones is crushed into a coarse flour and thrown out 
around the edges onto a large cloth placed under and 
around the mill for the purpose of catching it, Besides 
the flour for the bread, they prepare every year a quan- 
tity of cracked wheat, which is boiled and dried in small 
cakes, from which they make a much relished dish 
peculiar to the Persian poorer classes. 

Perhaps you would like to know something about 
their bread-making, also? They have round, wooden 
trays, much like what may be found in many American 
kitchens, and a heavy board and a rolling-pin. The 
bread is made up with leaven, worked and set to rise. 
Then rolled out into very thin cakes. The second 
woman has in her hand a kind of cushion covered with 



92 Persian Womkn. 

heavy canvas. The thin wafer of dough is spread 
smoothly on this cushion, which has a handle under- 
neath so that she can hold it securely. Then she slaps 
the cake of dough against the hot side of the tandoor 
(oven) so that it sticks and cooks in a few minutes, when 
another is put in its place, A week's baking, some- 
times two weeks' is done at once'. 

Drawing and Carrying Water. — Waterworks have not 
been introduced into Persia yet; all the water for drink- 
ing and everyday use is brought from a distance by the 
women. There are public wells or streams outside of 
each village. The women go evening and morning to 
these places and carry home as much as is needed. If it 
is a well, they have no pumps, so have to pull it up in an 
earthen vessel with a long rope and fill their jars from 
that, but if it is a spring they simply plunge the jars 
in until full, then lift it, first on the hip, then to the 
back or shoulder, and quickly march home. They go 
back and forth this way until all their jars are full, 
sometimes eight or ten times. 

The jars are large and heavy, made of earthenware. 
They hold from five to eight gallons of water. It takes 
long practice and strong arms to lift these jars to the 
shoulder without spilling any of the water or dropping 
and breaking the jar. But those women, who have been 
accustomed to the exercise, need no dumb-bells or skip- 
ping ropes for the development of their muscles. It is 
a beautiful sight every morning and night when scores 



The Occupations of Women. 93 

of women group together with their jars upon their 
backs and march to the spring. They find some com- 
pensation for the laborious task in the freedom to gossip 
and talk along the way, and look as if they really enjoy 
it. It reminds one of the romantic storv of Abraham's 
servant and Rebecca at the well (Gen. xxiv.), and of the 
more spiritual incident of our Savior and the woman of 
Samaria at Jacob's well (John iv.). 

The Preparation of Fuel. — There is no coal in Persia, 
and wood is scarce and costly. Hence a great majority 
of the people use in the ovens a mixture of cow manure, 
straw, and trash. The women and girls during the 
spring, summer and autumn seasons go about the streets 
and fields scraping up with their hands all they can 
find, filling a big basket to bring home. This they 
mix with what they can get from their own stable, and 
with straw and trash and work it with their hands into 
flat cakes, and leave in the sun until it is thoroughly 
dry. Then they heap it up in conical piles, often 
decorated at the top with a weed or bunch of flowers, for 
winter use, or to take to market. The women also have 
to go to the woods and gather fallen branches and twigs 
for kindling-wood. 

The Churning is done in a large, oddly-shaped earthen 
jar, laid upon its side on what is called a saddle. That 
is a kind of hollowed bridge into which the jar fits and 
over which it is jolted back and forth to make the butter 
come. First, however, the fresh milk is boiled and a 



94 Persian Women. 

little sour cream or buttermilk added. Then it is 
allowed to stand until it has become perfectly solid. 
The mouth of the jar is then tied up tight with a heavy 
piece of canvas so that no air can get in, and the jolting 
begins. "Gathering the butter," etc., is similar to the 
same process in America. 

Attending to the Sheep and Goats. — A great- number of 
the Persians are herdsmen and shepherds. And, as in 
the patriarchal age, they live out of doors with their 
flocks. But the women not only do the churning, but 
the milking, the shearing, preparing the wool for market, 
and gathering of stubble and grass for the winter food. 
For this food they go to the mountains and fields, and 
make up large bundles which they bring home on their 
backs, and thus, in summer, lay by a store for the com- 
ing winter. 

Sewing and Manufacturing. — There is so little 
machinery, worthy of the name, in Persia that most of 
the goods, whether of woollen or cotton, are manufac- 
tured at home by the women. They gather the cotton 
from the fields and carry it home., wash it,, card it, spin 
and weave it into all the different qualities of dry goods. 
And the same with the wool; the work is all done by the 
women, whether it be the finest or the coarsest material 
for clothing; rugs, carpets, sacks, or tent cloth. No one 
can more fully appreciate Solomon's description of the 
labors of the virtuous woman (Prov. xxxi), than one who 
has seen these Persian women at work. 



The Occupations of Women. 95 

The sewing, of course, is entirely done by women. 
And, as the sewing machine is not yet domesticated 
there, all the clothing of both men and women must be 
done by hand. In the cities there are now a few tailors 
who make some of the mens clothing. But in the 
villages and among the masses all is done by women. 
Slow, tedious work it seems now that sewing machines 
have become so common in most parts of the civilized 
world. 

The Harvesting. — Most of the harvesting, also, is done 
by women. It usually begins in the early part of June 
and lasts until the latter part of July or first of August. 
These months are very hard on the women. They have 
to be up early in order to finish their domestic duties by 
an hour after sunrise. Then the}'' take sickles and 
march to the field, which is usually from one to two 
miles distant. Often one sees a mother with her infant 
in the cradle upon her shoulder and the sickle in her 
hand marching with the rest. From morning until sun- 
set they toil with only two hours for rest in the middle 
of the day. The mothers put the baby-cradle under a 
tree, where they can see that no harm comes to the litile 
one, and can stop and rock it if it cries very hard. 

These harvest months are the very hottest of the year. 
The sun shines with terrific force during the day. Yet 
the women find heart for merry making and enjoyment. 
and one passing through the fields in harvest time will 
hear them singing their sweet love songs, two and two by 



96 Persian Women. 

turns. Though foreigners, who are not accustomed to 
them, say they are more like weeping and wailing than 
like merry songs. While the women reap, the men 
gather up the bundles and hind them ready to be carried 
to the threshing floor, which is a great distance from the 
field. Many a poor "Kuth" will be seen following the 
reapers, gleaning whatever may fall behind. At sunset 
they begin their homeward journey, tired and dirty. 
Their home duties are to come afterward before they are 
ready to rest. 

The Vineyard Work. — By the time the harvest is over 
the vineyard work begins. . The grapes are then ripe. 
The women pick the ripe and ready bunches, filling large 
baskets and carrying them to the end of the vineyard, 
where they are spread out in the sun to be dried for 
raisins. This usually takes from fifteen to twenty days. 
Then they gather them up and pile them at home ready 
for the market. The rest of the grapes are made into 
molasses and wine. Of course the men take some part 
in the vineyard work, but the most of it is done by the 
women. 

So much for the summer work of the women. In 
winter they have only domestic work, which includes the 
sewing, spinning and A^eaving, embroidery, etc. 

From the above descriptions you can realize some of 
the hardships in the life of a Persian woman. Yet, 
while they are strong and healthy they can get along- 
very well under it, but when they become old, blind, or 




Nkstorian Woman Churning. 




Nestorian Giri„s Rkaping. 



The Occupations of Women. 97 

crippled, and can work no longer and have no sons to 
provide for them, as there are no public charities for 
them to depend upon, their case is pitiable indeed. 
There is nothing left for them to do but to stand at the 
street corners, or go from house to house and beg. And 
their pathetic appeals in the name of Hassan and 
Housen never cease from years end to year's end. 

Such then, is the condition of Persian women in 
respect to work. Their life is undoubtedly hard, yet, 
what else is to be expected of a race who regard woman 
as an inferior being? We are told that the excessive 
cultivation and development of the body and physical 
nature, coupled with the entire neglect of, and indiffer- 
ence to, the mind and soul have a tendency to cause 
man or woman to grow more and more like the beast and 
less and less like the nobler human creature. This has 
certainly proved true concerning the Persian women. 
From hard labor, their arms become like those of giants, 
while their moral and intellectual powers dwindle down 
to those of a little child. 



CHAPTER IX. 
THE SOCIAL LIFE OF WOMAN. 

The Persians are particularly sociable as a people, and 
are naturally hospitable and entertaining. Full of 
humor and wit, they appreciate a good joke or an amus- 
ing story, and are always ready with an appropriate 
maxim or a pointed anecdote. In this respect they are, 
among Orientals, what the quick-witted Irish are among 
Westren nations. Their social life is conditioned on 
their domestic life; yet the two are widely separated, 
instead of being inter-related as in Europe and America. 
Men have their own social gatherings and women theirs, 
without any connection whatever. But the charac- 
teristic features are the same in both. Their elaborate 
rules of etiquette, flowery compliments, and the polite 
manners they have to assume in the presence of a visitor, 
while agreeable and charming, grow tedious when car- 
ried to such an extreme and repeated over and over 
again. 

The Persian women have none of the advantages of 
the American women in the social sphere. They have 
no balls, parties, nor receptions. But there are four 
special occasions, on which social intercourse is admis- 
sible, after their own fashion. Some account of these 
may be of interest to the reader. 

(98) 



The Social L,ifk of Women. 



99 



The Weddings. — An account of these has been given 
before. Every woman who has any connection with 
either of the contracting parties participates in the fes- 
tivities of the wedding for many days. 

The National andReligious Feasts furnish opportunity 
for social intercourse for the women as well as the men. 
During these feasts eveiwbody has the right of merry- 
making. One of the greatest of the feasts is Noruz, New 
Year's Day. It corresponds in its observance to Christ- 
mas in America, rather than New Year's Day. The 
fourteenth of March is the Persian New Years Day, and 
is the most appropriate time for it, as at that time the 
green herbs begin to spring out from their winter beds, 
the flowers to bud and bloom most beautifully, and the 
whole atmosphere is laden with spring sweetness. 

The festival is of very ancient origin, and has been 
observed from the most remote days of the nation. 
There are two speculative views as to its origin. Some 
suppose it to have originated with the Zoroastrians, who 
were students of the heavenly bodies and taught that the 
world began to move in its orbit on that day. Others 
trace it to the time of Jemshid-Jem, one of the first 
founders of the Persian monarchy, who is supposed to 
have lived at the time of the flood. 

A week before the great event takes place, each family 
and individual begins preparations. The stores and 
shops and all the bazaars are elaborately decorated and 
kept open most of the night. The heads of families buy 



ioo Persian Womkn. 

their "yedi-lawoon/'" which is one of the indispensable 
specialties of the occasion; every one must have a new 
suit of clothes made, men suspend business; women dye 
their hair and paint their eyebrows and cheeks afresh, 
and dye their hands and feet, and even the children are 
merry with anticipation, and the joy of coming events 
fills the veins of everybody. The feasting lasts for ten 
days. New Year's eve is particularly enjoyable. Every 
family will have their firecrackers, Koman candles, etc., 
and spend most of the night upon the roofs. And there 
will be a grand display of fireworks from each housetop, 
so that cities and towns look as though they were all 
ablaze. 

In the morning the servants receive their gifts and 
are then set free for the day, that they may spend the 
feast with their families. The women visit their 
friends; the poor go to the rich to receive the compli- 
ments of the season in gifts of money, food, or clothing. 

The "Holy Dervishes" pitch their tents at the gate- 
ways of prominent men of the city and there they stay 
until feasted to their hearts' content, and presented with 
whatever else they choose to claim. As it is considered 
a disgrace for a dervish to be obliged, by refusal or delay, 
to remain long in one place, they do not hesitate to make 
the most extortionate demands, and generally get what- 
ever they ask for. 

Eating, drinking, and smoking are the order of the 
day. New Year's calls are from one to two hours in 



Thk Social Life; of Women. ioi 

length, and at each place of calling the smoking and 
refreshments will be served. At each place also, a per- 
son is expected to show his respect to the host or hostess 
by not refusing to eat something. 

One of the most admirable features of the day is the 
visiting of the afflicted and bereaved ■ families. Such 
families are not expected to furnish anything for the 
festivities at their own homes; the visitors supply every- 
thing. The only part of the entertainment provided by 
the family is the smoking pipe and bitter coffee; both of 
which are signs of mourning in that country. In this 
manner the days of the great feast are spent. 

There are four things which every family endeavors 
to secure for entertainment of their friends at this time. 
These, the rich, of course, may have all the year round 
as they want them, but even the poor, those who have to 
work hard for a daily living, make every effort to procure 
the appropriate luxuries for the Xew Year's festival. 
One of these is the "Kalean," smoking pipe. It consists 
of a vase or bottle of glass, or china, decorated with the 
picture of the Shah, holding a quart of water. Through 
the narrow neck of this passes a wooden tube reaching 
halfway down into the water and extending some dis- 
tance above the neck of the vase, where it enters another 
vessel of brass, silver, or gold, sometimes richly orna- 
mented with turquoise or enamel. This is called the 
"head," and contains a layer of dampened tobacco with 
some pieces of burning charcoal on top of it. From this 



102 Persian Women. 

tube, just above the mouth of the lower vessel is an- 
other tube, "the mouth piece/' through which the smok- 
ing is done. One of these smoking pipes will be suf- 
ficient for several persons at a time, each taking a turn 
and turn about, as they do not care to smoke it long at a 
time. The women are as fond of smoking the kalean 
as the men, and the great ambition of everybody is to 
have a good supply of the btst tobacco, brought from 
Sheraz, for the feast. Another of the luxuries of the 
season is a variety of luscious drinks, such as sherbets 
made of lemon, plum, cherry, rose, and grape syrups 
deliriously flavored and fragrant; skanjabi, made of 
honey and vinegar and generally used when eating 
lettuce; tea and coffee. The tea is made in the samawar 
and served in small glasses, very strong and very sweet, 
but without cream. Three glasses will about make a 
good sized coffee cup. Coffee is made and served in the 
same way, always without cream, and in mourning, with- 
out sugar. Still another part of the entertainment is 
"Yedi-lawoon," which is confectionery and fruit, seven 
kinds, always. There will be, in each house, a table 
loaded with them all through the days of the feast. 

Among the candies peculiar to Persia are gaz, made of 
the juice of a tree which is richly flavored; peshmok, 
made of sugar and butter, and shaped ink) little cones, 
and a sweetmeat made of pomegranate jelly, which is very 
delicious. Besides these they have burned almonds, 
sugared, with other nuts, raisins, figs, pomegranates, 



The Social Life of Women. 103 

dates, grapes, apples, pears, and other fruits, all of which 
abound in Persia. From tins abundance they select 
seven kinds, according to fancy. 

Last, but not least, we will mention "Pelow," rice, 
cooked according to a certain Persian style. They first 
take the rice, wash and boil it in water, putting a great 
deal of salt in it. When it begins to get a little soft 
they drain off all the water and let it cool. Then put- 
ting some melted butter in another kettle they put the 
rice in and add some more melted butter on the top, 
with a variety of spices, and cover closely so as to 
exclude the air, and the kettle is again placed over the 
red hot charcoal. Thus it will be steamed for more than 
an hour when it will be ready to eat. As they do not 
use knives or forks nor spoons in eating pelow, the 
fingers do the work. While pelow is a daily dish with 
the rich, the poor can have simple rice every day, but 
pelow only on holidays or feast days. 

Public Baths. — The third opportunity for social en- 
joyment is at the public or private bath rooms. Eeligion, 
as well as custom, among the Persians requires frequent 
ablutions. As there are no conveniences for this pur- 
pose in the houses, they have constructed public baths, 
so that everybody can avail themselves of them by 
paying ten or fifteen cents for one or two hours bathing. 

The women get together once a week and go to these 
places and sometimes spend half a day bathing, dyeing 
their hair and eyebrows and gossiping. 



io4 Persian Women. 

These houses are constructed below the surface of the 
ground so that they can be supplied with water from the 
streets, not through pipes, but from open trenches run- 
ning through the city. Consequently the water is far 
from pure. Besides, it is kept in the tanks until it be- 
comes old and stale, and often causes or propagates dis- 
eases. The buildings are all arched into little domes 
having a few holes on the top covered with colored glass 
or alabaster. They are heated with steam to such a high 
temperature that often persons, not accustomed to it, 
faint the first time they try it. 

The rich people have their private baths attached to 
their own houses. Sometimes a wealthy woman enter- 
tains women of her rank by inviting them to spend the 
day in the bath rooms. The bath is followed by tea and 
kalean, served in the front hall of the bath. 

On the other hand, in the villages, where there are no 
public baths, the women find a warm place in the stables 3 
where they take jars of hot water and spend a few hours 
bathing and chatting. 

Visiting. — Friendly calls are frequent among some 
classes of women. This interchange of visits is governed 
by etiquette similar to that of the men. Among the 
higher classes of society this etiquette is very elaborate. 

When a lady wishes to pay a visit, a notice will be sent 
first. If the visitor and the hostess are equal in rank the 
notice will be a written document, and will be acknowl- 
edged in the same way. When the visitor outranks the 



The Social Life of Women. 105 

hostess, a verbal notice will be sent a few hours before. 
It is customary for callers to go in a style suited to their 
own rank, accompanied by a host of servants on horse- 
back, who go ahead to clear away all obstacles. And the 
lady, with her maidens all dressed in their outdoor cos- 
tume, rides through the streets following the servants. 
When they approach the house a servant is dispatched to 
announce the arrival of the visitor. On dismounting, 
the lady is escorted by a number of servants, through 
the premises into the presence of the hostess, who 
receives her according to their relative rank, either at 
the court, or just at the steps. (In case the hostess out- 
ranks the visitor she remains sitting in her reception 
room until the visitor is ushered in.) Then a place will 
be pointed out for the visitor to sit. But she must 
always be careful not to accept the offer if the place is 
too high for her; for every woman is seated according 
to her rank. The most honorable seats are in that part 
of the room farthest from the door, by the rug called 
the headpiece. 

After the visitor is seated, an elaborate exchange of 
bows and salaams follow, accompanied by flowery com- 
pliments and honeyed phrases about health, prospects, 
and home affairs. Eefreshments, suited to the occasion 
or season will be served; as, hot drinks in winter, cooling 
drinks in summer. * Coffee always comes last of all. and 
indicates the end of the refreshments. 

Pipes are renewed every few minutes. The servants 



io6 Persian Women. 

of the guest will also be attended to and served with 
refreshments by the servants of the hostess. 

After the cup of coffee the visitor bows and takes her 
leave in the same style as she came. 

But the most important kind of visiting is when a 
lady of high rank wishes to visit a village or community 
at a distance of five or six miles. The villagers are, of 
course, peasants and laboring people of the lower order. 
The lady first sends a servant to the house of the chief 
of the village to - announce her coming, and his house 
will be made ready for her reception by being thor- 
oughly cleansed in every nook and corner and fitted up 
with the best rugs which can be borrowed from all the 
neighbors. The lady is usually escorted by a number 
of servants for protection, the whole party being on 
horseback. If the visit is to a still greater distance, say 
thirty or fifty miles, she travels by another mode, which, 
though slow, is very comfortable. This is the takht- 
rawan, a sort of palanquin with shafts extending length- 
wise and strapped on either side of mules, one before and 
one behind. This carriage is large enough to admit of 
any comfortable position, and the mules have plenty of 
bells to make a merry noise as they go along. 

There is still another less expensive mode of con- 
veyance, that by the Tcajawa. Two small vehicles are 
suspended like saddle-bags, across the mule's back. 
These are much smaller and more cramped every way, 
with only a calico cover to keep out the sun. Still they 



The Social Life of Women. 107 

have a right pleasant motion, and for a long trip are less 
tiresome than horseback. Two women can be accom- 
modated in one of these arrangements, if two of equal 
rank happen to be going at the same time. Otherwise 
something else must be found to balance. Even when 
well balanced the mule must be driven very slowly to 
keep the kajawa from upsetting or getting out of place. 

At the approach of the visitor the citizens go out about 
a mile to welcome her, sometimes killing a sheep or a 
cow before her as a kind of sacrifice in her honor, and 
will bow several times to the ground most reverently. 
To all this some of the members of her escort respond on 
her behalf. Then she will be guided to the residence 
prepared for her, where she will be feasted for many 
days. 

The following are some of the forms of entertainment 
on such occasions. Music, on the guitar and santoor 
(an instrument something like an audoharp only larger), 
sometimes accompanied by singing. Dancing — The 
Persian women greatly enjoy dancing. It is done by 
professional dancing women in the indoor costume, 
which is not overly modest at best, and with handker- 
chiefs in hand, or tambourine, playing, singing, and 
dancing all at the same time; and the Chum, or Jester. 
People of rank, in Persia, regularly employ these jesters 
for their own amusement, ladies employing female 
jesters or clowns. While the visitors are thus having a 
gay time, the poor citizens must provide the meat, 



io8 Persian Women. 

chicken, rice, tea, and everything for the whole caval- 
cade. And aiter she is gone, many of them will be 
sorely impoverished by her visit. Such are the visits 
of high rank ladies. On the other hand, the poor 
women have nothing wherewith to entertain their 
friends when they call, save the pathetic story of their 
toils and privations. 



CHAPTEE X. 
MUTUAL RELATIONS OF HUSBAND AND WIPE. 

If marriage were always what God intended it to be, 
there could never be a wreck in life's voyage, never a 
bitter separation would poison the social organization. 
The fact is, the further husbands and wives deviate from 
the principles of God, the darker will be the horizon 
around them. And the golden gates of their wedded 
life instead of opening into a paradise of roses and lilies, 
will open into a field of thorns and thistles, woes and 
miseries. The ideal relation between husband and wife 
is nowhere so clearly and forcibly set forth as in the New 
Testament, by the inspiration of the Spirit. The hus- 
band is commanded to love his wife "even as Christ also 
loved the church." Whenever a husband can measure 
the length, breadth, height, and depth of the love of 
Christ to his church, then he will know the measure of 
love he owes his wife. 

This great word "Love" needs to be more strongly 
emphasized in these days, for many a man has deluded 
himself and the one with whom he unites in marriage by 
a sort of love which arises merely from emotional fond- 
ness, a merely human and fleshly affection. "Husbands, 

love your wives" with the most tender, gentle, courteous, 
(109) 



no Persian Women. 

and self-sacrificing love, for Christ so loved the church, 
which is his bride, that he gave himself for it. No man 
has the right to take a gentle, delicate, and youthful 
woman for his companion,, without first considering 
earnestly and thoroughly the great duties and responsi- 
bilities as recorded in the fifth chapter of Ephesians. 

On the other hand, the wives must love their hus- 
bands, even as also the church loves her Christ; which is 
a love of sacred subjection, faithfulness, warm-hearted- 
ness, trustfulness and sincerity; for so they are com- 
manded, "Wives submit yourselves unto your own hus- 
bands as unto the Lord." Let every wife listen to the 
beautiful penpicture by one of the wise, master writers: 

"A good wife is heaven's last, best gift to man, his 
angel and minister of graces innumerable, his gem of 
many virtues; her voice his sweetest music, her smiles 
his brightest day, her kiss the guardian of his innocence, 
her arms the pale of his safety, the balm. of his health, 
the sure balsam of his life; her industry his surest wealth, 
her economy his safest steward, her lips his faithful 
counselor, her bosom the softest pillow of his cares, and 
her prayers the ablest advocate of Heaven's blessing on 
his head." 

Such are the sacred and solemn duties of every woman 
who wishes to make an ideal wife. Taking this for our 
position and the true criterion for our judgment, we will 
show the relations of husbands and wives as they are 
under the teachings of the Koran and the tyrannous 



Relations of Husband and Wife. hi 

I 

sceptre of custom in Persia. The relations and obliga- 
tions of a husband to the woman with whom he has 
contracted marriage, have not even a similarity to those 
of the Christian husband. He does not take her aXa 
companion or helpmate, but for convenience and as a v 
slave. Therefore, he feels under no obligation to love 
or sympathize with her, to teach, help, or to honor her 
as his own body. And she aspires to nothing, and 
claims nothing. Simply gives perfect submission to lus 
will on all occasions. Whenever she does not obey his 
slightest behest, however vicious and cruel, he punishes 
her severely. This the Koran teaches him to do. It 
says: 

"Those wives whose perverseness ye fear admonish 
them and remove them into a bedchamber and beat 
them; but if they submit to you do not seek a way 
against them." 

In the earliest days of Arabia there was a custom of 
burying girls alive. Islam takes credit to itself for hav- 
ing abolished this cruel practice. But it has instituted, 
in its stead, one scarcely less horrible for those women 
who are found guilty of unfaithfulness: 

"If any of your women be guilty, produce four wit- 
nesses from among you against them, and if they bear 
witness against them, imprison them in separate apart- 
ments till death release them." 

In the days of the Prophet, the women were im- 
prisoned till they died by starvation. At the present 



ii2 Persian Women. 

day, a guilty woman is dragged before an officer, con- 
demned to be tied in a woollen bag, that the soldiers 
who are to beat her may not see whether their clubs 
strike eyes, mouth, or limb. When no longer able to 
endure the sound of her cries the officer retires from the 
scene. But there is no relenting on the part of the 
cruel Pherashees whose blows continue unpityingly until 
their victim is senseless and unable to cry any longer. 
Most of the husbands, however, prefer to scourge their 
own wives. Before they many, they say: "It is im- 
portant in selecting a wife to take one who will bear the 
rod with docility/' A very slight reason may cause her 
punishment, I have seen husbands who would kick and 
strike their wives because they did not move quickly 
enough when commanded to do something; or when 
asked to do something absolutely contrary to their wills. 
It would be somehting remarkable, in that land, to find 
a single wife who had never in her life suffered punish- 
ment, For a husband who does not punish his wife 
when he thinks she needs it, is looked upon by his 
associates ver}^ much as is one who beats his wife in 
America. In fact, the word "henpecked" could have no 
meaning whatever to the Persians. I have heard piteous 
appeals from Persian women to Christian women, beg- 
ging that the missionaries would preach to their hus- 
bands and induce them to become more kind and merci- 
ful. For there is not a single precept in the Koran bid- 
ding husbands to love their wives. Poor woman! if she 



Relations of Husband and Wife. 113 

is not married she must bear the reproach and curse of 
being an old maid. And if she marries she must endure 
the club of her tyrant. 

Moreover, when a husband eats, the wife cannot sit 
with him and eat at the same table, but must always 
stand in his presence, with her arms crossed while he 
eats, ready to render her service to him, like an accom- 
plished slave. And after he has done eating she pours 
water on her lord's hands, and wipes them with a towel 
or her own chader; then she lights his water pipe, and 
with a graceful, yet slavish bow, she hands it to him, 
and while he enjoys it, she serves the children in the 
same fashion, after which she retires to a respectful 
distance, her face turned toward the black mud wall, so 
that her lord may not see her lips moving, and finishes 
the contents of the meal. When he walks on the street 
she cannot walk anywhere near him, because it is a 
reproach for a man to be. seen on the street with a 
woman, and also, because she is so covered by the out- 
door costume, he might be accused of walking with a 
woman who was not his wife. Hence, she never expects 
any help or protection from him. 

When he goes on a journey he does not even tell her 
good-bye, or consult with her about his trip. And if he 
should be gone for years would never write her a single 
letter, nor ask after her health. If anything needs to be 
attended to he writes to his brothers or father, or a near 
male relative. Nor does he ever trust his wife with any 



ii4 Persian Women. 

money for her living; he will ask a friend or relative to 
give it to her little by little. 

When he is in any business trouble or perplexity it 
will not occur to him to mention the fact to her or to 
ask her advice. On the contrary, when he talks business 
with his friends she must not even listen. And if she 
were in any mental or physical depression she would not 
dare to mention it to him, for she could only be sure of 
harsh, rough words instead of loving sympathy. In all 
these things he is in no sense a husband to her, but only 
a lord and owner. The natural result of this brutal 
misconception of woman's place and claims is that the 
woman accepts the degrading position, and instead of 
being the companion of her husband as God intended 
her to be, sharer of his welfare, his joys, sorrows, and 
cares, and co-partner of his home and children, she only 
seeks to steal his goods, destroy the happiness of his 
home and to avenge her wrongs in any way she dares. 

Owing to this awful and perverted condition of affairs, 
the children remain untaught and untrained; the home 
is like an impure fountain which can cast forth nothing 
but quarreling and discontent, and society becomes cor- 
rupt to the core. While this is the state of the case in 
general, we are glad to admit that there are a few men 
who are naturally kindhearted and treat their wives with 
more consideration and justice. And some wives, who, 
naturally endowed with talents and tact, become, even 
in .that benighted land, the "power behind the throne; 



.*} 



Relations of Husband and Wife. 115 

some who, in a quiet, unobtrusive, but effectual way, 
stimulate their husbands to great deeds, just as their 
sisters do in Europe and America. But, alas, these in- 
stances are few and far between. For the sake of child' 
hood and humanity, we wish the number could be in- 
creased a thousandfold and their powers developed. 



CHAPTEE XI. 

WOMEN IN THE CHAMBER OF SICKNESS AND 

DEATH. 

* It is said that when Catherine Von Bora was lament- 
ing over the loss of her daughter, the dear old Reformer 
said to her: "Don't take on so, wife; remember this is 
a hard world for women." If there is any time in the 
life of a woman in the Orient when this old world is hard 
for her, it is when she is in the sick room and at the 
edge of eternity. This is the last period of life, the 
period upon which the silent shadows of eternity fall, 
and in which a woman takes her last farewell of the 
mortal body and flies to the world of immortality. 
Therefore it is a most important epoch of her life. It 
may be well, before going on to describe woman's con- 
dition in sickness and death, to state briefly the idea of 
Islamism with regard to woman's immorality. 

It has been currently believed that, according to the 
teachings of Islam, woman has no soul; that she is 
only a higher species of animal, whose life is ended at 
death. Three facts have led people to this conclusion. 

First, the inferiority of women to men as determined 

by the Koran. For it is written: "Men are superior to 

women on account of the qualities with which God has 
(116) 



Chamber of Sickness and Death. 117 

gifted the one above the other, and on account of the 
outlay men make from their substance for them." The 
Caliph Omar (not recognized as Caliph by the Moham- 
medans of Persia) is reported to have said, on one 
occasion, that " women are worthless creatures and soil 
men's reputations." 

Secondly, the shameful treatment women receive all 
through Mohammedan lands, the worst from the most 
orthodox followers of the Prophet. 

Thirdly, the Moslem idea of Paradise. Heaven, 
according to their belief, has seven divisions. It is writ- 
ten: "Who created seven heavens in stories." The 
seven divisions come in the following order: "The 
garden of eternity, the abode of peace, the abode of rest, 
the garden of Eden, the garden of resort, the garden of 
pleasure (the place of the Most High), and the garden of 
Paradise." 

All believers will be ushered by the angels into these 
gardens after they are dead. Here, the fruit of the trees, 
and the shade of the branches, the crystal-like waters, 
ever flowing from the great rivers, the flesh of fowls, 
will be in abundance. They will have no headache, 
their wit will not be dimmed. Around them shall 
stand eternal youth with goblets and ewers and cup* 
flowing with wine. They will recline on gold-weft 
couches, while the bright and large-eyed maidens who 
are like hidden pearls, shall walk before them. These 
are what are called the damsels of paradise, the seventy- 



n8 Persian Women. 

two bright-eyed Houris and Paries, the beauty of whom 
is beyond human conception. And these will make the 
other world paradise for the believers. The supposition 
easily follows that as God has created these Houris to be 
the wives of the believers in paradise, therefore it must 
be that their earthly wives perish. Such, however, is 
not the teaching of the Koran, which plainly states that: 

"The men who resign themselves to God, and the 
women who resign themselves to God; the believing men 
and the believing women; the devout men and the 
devout women; the men of truth and the women of 
truth; the patient men and the patient women; the 
humble men and the humble women; the men who give 
alms and the women who give alms; the men who fast 
and the women who fast; the chaste men and the 
chaste women; the men and the women who oft remem- 
ber God, for them has God prepared forgiveness and a 
rich recompense/' And again it is written: "They and 
their wives on that day shall rest in shady groves/' 
"Enter ye and your wives into paradise delighted," etc. 

So that the expectation of each believer is to have his 
earthly wives and in addition to them the seventy-two 
Houris when he reaches paradise. However, there is a 
stern condition for the admittance of any woman into 
heaven. And that is she must be virtuous, and how can 
a woman be virtuous? Only by perfect obedience to her 
husband. For it is written: "The virtuous women are 
obedient," 



Chamber of Sickness and Death. iig 

Some women who are naturally inclined to be relig- 
ious, try to bring themselves into perfect subjection and 
to render the fullest obedience to whatever commands 
their husbands may give, in order to obtain the privilege 
of accompanying them to paradise, while others seek to 
win merit by long pilgrimages to some sacred shrine* 
If the journey has to be made on a lazy donkey's back it 
only adds luster to their piety, and renders more sure 
of their reward. Upon such a tattering foundation and 
gloomy faith hangs the rayless hope of a Moslem 
woman. But, outside of these few, there are number- 
less thousands who make their whole life's journey with 
scarcely a thought or hope of immorality, being without 
God in Christ 

Now we come to what sickness is to them. We have 
spoken of their ignorance and awful sins, now we must 
tell of their sorrows also, for they are the natural out- 
come of sin. 

Christian women, for whom sickness means nothing 
but tenderness, sympathy, and love, have not the faintest 
idea what sickness means to their sisters where there is 
no Christ. And there is a vast volume of facts in this 
connection which Christian women must meet and 
modify, even though an acquaintance with them may 
thrill with horror their enlightened souls. 

The woes of sickness in unchristianized lands are be- 
yond the conception of those of other countries. Heath- 
endom, throughout the East, believes that sickness is the 



120 • Persian Women 

result of demons taking possession of a body. There- 
fore they beat the sick person with their terrible clubs, 
or roast his body b}^ fire so as to drive out the demon 
from him. Moslems, on the other hand, torture them 
by neglect of proper treatment or from want of any 
treatment at all. So that thousands of women die every 
year for want of a little medicine and treatment. We 
can the better understand the situation of a sick woman 
in Persia or any other Mohammedan country by noting 
the following points: The prevailing view of Islam in 
regard to the doctrine of predestination is almost crim- 
inal. The Koran teaches it in its most radical form, 
which leads almost inevitably to fatalism. They believe 
that whatever comes, including sickness, must be 
accepted and submitted to, without any human inter- 
ference, as predestined by God from eternity. This idea, 
as you see, precludes the use of remedies in sickness. 

Again, the woman's position in domestic and social 
circles makes it quite impossible for any doctor to see or 
prescribe for her. For those who get sick in the harem 
there is no help, they must suffer and die, often without 
even the knowledge of the nearest neighbor. They can 
only be seen when their cold bodies are being taken out 
for burial. And if there were any opportunity to con- 
sult a physician the result would be of no avail, as the 
native doctors have not the slightest idea of medical 
science. In most cases they are more apt to cause injury 
and death, than help, by their treatment. These, physi- 



Chamber of Sickness and Death. 121 

cians rely chiefly on charms, spells, amulets, or unholy 
incantations. And as the people are extremely ignorant 
they have implicit faith in them, and would not spare 
their last cent to pay for them. There is one of these 
so-called doctors in the neighborhood of my home, of 
whom I know well. If he should be consulted about a 
woman or child with fever and chills, he would say, 
after long deliberation, that a chicken must be brought 
next day so that he may write a charm with the blood of 
the chicken. The chicken is killed at his home and the 
blood used for ink, while the meat will furnish the physi- 
cian's dinner. The sick person will be ordered to take 
the writing and burn it, putting the ashes in a cup of 
water. Then to drink the water and speedily recover. 
For a person who has no appetite they will prescribe a 
few loaves of bread put under his pillow at bedtime. 
Some of these doctors believe that a man's occupation 
sometimes determines what medicine he must use in 
order to recover. The sainted Dr. Grant, among his 
missionary experiences, tells an amusing anecdote of one 
of these physicians. "He called on a tailor who was ill 
with intermittent fever. After feeling his pulse, look- 
ing wise and mentally invoking the aid of Allah, he left 
his directions and went his way. He returned next day 
and found the tailor well enough to be up and around. 
'Alhamdulillah,' he exclaimed, f I see you followed my 
directions!' 'No/ rejoined the tailor. "I did not.' 
/Then what did vou do?' 'Why, nothing in particular, 



i22 Persian Women. 

except that I drank a bowl of cabbage soup,' The phy- 
sician, at once reached the conclusion as to the proper 
method of treating low fevers. Exit physician, jotting 
down as an important item, 'Cabbage soup will cure low 
fevers/ Next he was summoned to the house of an 
upholsterer and found him very ill with apparently the 
same symptoms. At once he prescribed 'plenty of cab- 
bage soup/ On returning the next day to see how rap- 
idly his patient was recovering, he was astonished to 
learn that the man was dead. 'Allah akbarP he ex- 
claimed, "twas the will of Allah!' Then he departed, 
jotting down in his memorandum book this astonishing 
medical discovery. 'Cabbage soup will cure low fever in 
a tailor, but will kill an upholsterer/ " 

This is a fair sample of the extent of the knowledge of 
a Persian physician. In some cases a woman may in 
some way gain the advantage of these prescriptions for 
their fevers and slight ailments, but in the more serious 
forms of disease, the doctor, not daring to touch them 
even to feel their pulse or look at their tongue', they 
have to stand the pain and suffering to the end without 
any relief. Especially is this true in the hour of "pain 
and peril of child birth/' They often perish under the 
barbarous hands of the ignorant midwives. 

Also in the time of epidemics such as cholera, small- 
pox, and other contagious diseases which often bring 
raging destruction into the country. The men may flee 
to the mountains and get away from their city homes 



Chamber of Sickness and Death. 123 

and danger, but the women and children are lelt lo 
endure whatever comes. It is pitiful indeed to see them 
falling prostrate and dying sometimes, without anyone 
to hand them even so much as a cup of cold water to 
quench their thirst. 

We have already written something on the mutual re- 
lations of husbands and wives. It will not be amiss to 
add a word more in this connection. If there is any 
time when a wife needs her husband to stand close to 
her, it is when she is in suffering and pain. And if there 
is any time when a husband ought to do it is then; to 
be near her with sympathy, with tender love, with com- 
forting words, and undying devotion. But instead of 
this, the Moslem husband often sends heartless messages 
to her, that she has been in bed long enough, she is 
not sick at all, she is fooling people and wasting time; 
thus, for the. poor woman, adding sorrow of heart to 
physical pain. With no psalm of comfort to read, no 
skill of doctor to alleviate suffering, no trained nurses, 
no hospital or infirmary, no preacher of the. gospel to 
administer the consolations of religion, and no hope 
for eternity when their sufferings shall end on earth. 
The pain and dissolution of the bodily organism is dread- 
ful enough, but these are intensified an hundredfold 
by the terrible agonies of a "guilty conscience forecasting 
the retributions of the future." Thus the sad and 
solemn hour comes when the shadows of the king of 
terrors begin to fall at the door of the melancholy room. 



124 Persian Women. 

The feet begin to grow cold, the eyesight dim, the weary 
body beats one last pulse, and the soul is gone. But, 
alas, not to rest, for there is no rest to them who die 
without Christ. To them, death is but the beginning of 
a new misery, as much greater than anything in this 
world, as eternity is longer than time. 

Oh! I wish I could ring into the ear of every Chris- 
tian woman the awful doom of my unsaved country- 
women! I wish I could pierce every heart and soul with 
the darts of the love of Christ, so as to arouse a new zeal 
and interest in sending to them the great salvation of 
Christ. 

BURIAL CEREMONIES. 

The Mohammedans have a prescribed ritual for the 
burial of the dead, which may be elaborated or cut 
short according as the dead is rich or poor, the essentials 
being the same in either case. The unfortunate women 
do not receive nearly so much attention as the men, even 
in death and burial. 

The announcement of death is considered to bring 
misfortune, therefore few people will volunteer to take 
the tidings around. The moollah must be informed 
first, and he will make it public by going up on the top 
of the mosque and singing in a pecular way, certain pas- 
sages from the Koran. This is recognized by everybody 
as the announcement of a death. Then the preparations 
for burial begin at once, for they do not keep a dead 



Burial Ceremonies. 125 

bod} 7 in the house more than three or four hours, sup- 
posing it to be of ill-omen to the family. And it must 
be that they often bury persons while only unconscious, 
for in some known instances, when, from necessity they 
were obliged to keep the body a. little longer than usual 
they have found the person was not dead at all. 

It is customary to wash the body under a cover two or 
three times. The ears, nose, and mouth are then filled 
with moistened cotton and the body shrouded in a piece 
of cloth. Coffins are little used, when they are, they 
make them of rough wood and cover with black calico. 
The large majority of the dead are buried without. A 
piece of shawl is thrown over the body from the house 
to the grave, then it is taken off. The washing and 
preparatory ceremonies are done by the poor people who 
expect to receive in return the clothing of the dead. 
When all is ready for the burial the moollah is sent for 
to come to the house. Then the body will be taken 
between four persons, others following to relieve the 
bearers if they should get tired. There are no hearses 
in Persia, but it is considered meritorious to assist in 
these ceremonies. The moollah goes before the proces- 
sion reading the Koran. Women are not allowed to go 
to the grave at all. The grave is about four feet deep for 
a man, while for a woman it must be two or three feet 
deeper. So that there is no equality between man and 
woman even in the grave. The body must be laid in 
such a way that the face can look toward Mecca, the holy 



126 Persian Women. 

shrine of the Moslem, and a pair of crutches are placed 
under the shoulders to help them up in the day of the 
resurrection. Then the earth is filled in and a stone put 
over it. On the eve of the same day, a large fire is 
kindled over the head, intended to keep off the hotdar, 
an animal which comes at night to dig into the grave 
and eat the dead body. 

In Persia there are no marble monuments over the 
graves. Sometimes a rude stone may be seen with the 
name of the person written on it and some passages 
from the Koran, or sometimes the sign of the man's trade 
as a sword for a soldier, etc. Very little attention is 
paid to the burying-grounds. Instead of flowers, roses 
and trees, there is nothing but trash, a resort for donkeys 
and other animals. Perhaps one reason of this indif- 
ference is that most of the dead are buried temporarily. 
As soon as the flesh is gone from the bones, they are dug 
up and carried to the sacred shrines at Kerbela and 
Meshed, so as to rise in company with the great Imams, 
holy prophets on the last day. 

After the burial the moollahand all the people who 
participated in the ceremony go back to the house of 
mourning to offer their condolence and good wishes to 
the bereaved by repeating over and over again: 
"It is the will of Allah!" 

"Our lives are in the hands of Allah!" 

"May the name of Allah be blessed!" etc. 

Each will then be served with a cup of bitter coffee 



Burial Ceremonies. 127 

and a kalean or smoking pipe, while another member of 
the family brings a bottle of rose water to pour over the 
head of each one. 

The number of mourning days as well as the elaborate- 
ness of the ceremonial varies greatly. For the poorer 
classes of women there will be no mourning at all. Hus- 
bands consider it unmanly to weep over a dead wife, as 
another one can easily be procured. But when a man is 
dead, all the household must mourn for forty or fifty 
days, and somtimes for the whole year. The special 
mourning days are on the third day, the seventh, and 
the fortieth after burial. On these days all the neigh- 
bors will gather at the house. Of course tins is prin- 
cipally the duty of the women, who are always the last 
to respond to joy and the last to leave off their mourning. 
The mourning consists of singing the songs of death, 
which are very pathetic and hopeless in sentiment. Pro- 
fessional mourners are secured who have trained them- 
selves for such occasions, and the house will be packed 
and jammed with other women, mostly of those who 
have had sorrows of their own. The hired singers sit 
in the midst of them. Some article of clothing or some- 
thing which belonged to the dead is handed to the lead- 
ers who take it into their hands and begin to sing. 
After each stanza there will be an interval of a few min- 
utes for them all to weep and sob as a chorus. This goes 
on from morning until dinner time. If the hired 
mourners grow weary, they throw the garment of the 



128 Persian Women. 

dead man into the lap of some mother who has recently 
lost a son and she, thus reminded of her own loss, takes 
up the melanchoily refrain and leads, while the others 
get a little rest. 

Dinner is served to them all, and after dinner they 
begin again and keep it up until night. When, ex- 
hausted they depart. Sometimes wives and mothers tear 
their garments and scratch their faces, pull their hair 
out and put mud and dust over their bodies, while men 
keep their shirts unbuttoned at the breast for several 
days. 

The moollah is paid large sums to read the Koran on 
every Friday night over the grave. Sometimes ten or 
fifteen of them will be seen in the same graveyard read- 
ing aloud and this will be continued for several months. 
The whole family dresses in black for a year. 

Not only in Persia, but in all countries where they are 
without Christianity, to the women especially, death is 
a terror and the grave a pit of awful darkness. They 
sorrow as those who have no hope. It is Christianity 
alone which throws a soft and peaceful light over the 
grave. Where Christ is known, instead of head-beating, 
body-torturing, and hopeless lamentation, songs of hope, 
peace, and love are sung by the bereaved, to the glory of 
Him who rules life and death forever 



CHAPTER XII. 
CHRISTIANITY THE ONLY HOPE FOR WOMEN. 

The Christian apologetes need no longer spend their 
valuable time and fertile brains in vindicating Chris- 
tianity. The treatment of woman is in itself, sufficient 
proof of its superiority over any other system. The un- 
controvertible facts of history and the strong testimony 
of experience show clearly that one of the distinguish- 
ing features of the so-called moral and philosophic re- 
ligions of the world is the slavery and degradation of 
the female sex. 

We have already seen it in Mohammedanism — doubt- 
less one of the greatest of these systems. All its claims 
of morality and inspiration, its revered priesthood and 
its cornerstone of belief in "Allah," the one and oniy 
God, has been of no avail to women. The only thing 
womanhood has received from Islam is moral corrup- 
tion, mental stupidity, physical barbarity, social slavery 
and spiritual deadness. 

Leaving the domains of Mohammed we pass to India. 
The religion of India has been appropriately called "the 
religion of despair."' Hindooism, in its early stages, 
smiled upon the faces of woman and protected and 
adored her virtues. But this golden age departed cen- 
turies before our Christian era, And in its place a dif- 
(129) 



130 Persian Women. 

f erent kind of system has been transplanted which drags 
woman into the lowest stratum of society, and considers 
her absolutely incapable, through her own efforts, of ren- 
dering acceptable service to the Deity. Even individ- 
uality is denied to her. Every hope she has is founded 
upon her husband, for without him she is soulless. The 
law says that "a husband, however devoid of good quali- 
ties, must constantly be revered as a god by a virtuous 
wife. She who slights not her lord but keeps her mind, 
speech, and body devoted to him attains her heavenly 
mansions." No matter how young they may be left 
widows, they are thenceforth regarded as dead while 
living. We hardly wonder that "Hindoo women never 
smile." 

Buddhism, with its great pantheon of gods and god- 
desses, can reach no higher than to impress upon its 
votaries the inferiority and slavery of woman as a, conse- 
quence of her having been the cause of evil being 
brought upon the whole human race. In the Oracles it 
is written: "All was subject to man in the beginning. 
The wise husband raised up a bulwark of walls, but the 
woman, from an ambitious desire of knowledge demol- 
ishes it. Our misery did not come from heaven, she 
lost the human race/' 

One of the most intelligent of the Chinese said to a 
missionary: 

"'Why do you make Christians of our women?" 

"To save their souls," replied the missionary. 



Christianity The Only Hope. 131 

"But they have no souls, you cant make Christians 
of them!" 

In the estimation of a Chinaman "ten daughters do 
not in any case equal the value of one son. v Hence 
there is no hope for woman in the old religions of China 
and Japan. 

Among the classic, cultured Greeks, who have inher- 
ited honest fame as the most intellectual people of an- 
tiquity, the full dignity of humanity was not accorded to 
woman. In the fullest sense, mankind consisted only 
of men. Their conception of woman is personified in 
the figure of "Pandora" with her box of all human ills. 

Plato, when he would picture society as a complete 
wreck, says: 

"Slaves are disobedient to their masters and wives on 
an equality with their husbands." Socrates utters the 
pathetic question: "Is there a human being with whom 
you talk less than with your wife?" And Aristotle char- 
acterizes them as an inferior order. These are the senti- 
ments of the great leaders of religious thought, of the 
doctrines inculcated in great systems which reflect the 
spirit of purely human organizations. From none of 
these can there ever be a shadow of comfort for woman. 
Not one of them has given her the place of equality, as 
half of the unit of mankind. And not one of them has 
recognized fully her superior nature, her immortal soul. 
Crush the soul of a woman, rob her of her divine en- 
thusiasm, destroy her yearnings to be a spiritual solace, 



132 Persian Women. 

and she will wither soon like a. sticken tree and sink sul- 
lenly into obscurity. Paganism, in ignoring the grand- 
est and the truest in a woman, and in crushing her soul, 
has extinguished her very life, and shed darkness on all 
who surround her. For without the amenities of the 
soul there can never be a lofty friendship and a reai 
society. 

Where Christianity arises, with its crimson banner 
floating through the skies, with its infallible claims of 
inspiration, its holy and high priesthood of all the saints 
and its high moral and ethical teachings, it brings a 
healing balm for all the woes and ills of humanity, and 
a message of hope and salvation to all the nations, races, 
and sexes from the divine lips of the crucified Jesus. 

Of course in the term Christianity we do not include 
those superstitious and paganized forms of it which also 
degrade womanhood. Genuine Romanism, for instance, 
degenerates into a species of polished paganism whose 
nunneries and convents are like living graves where the 
lofty sentiments and high aspirations of all who take 
their vows are buried, and from which no better freedom 
comes to the female sex than from the shrines of 
Buddha, the temples of Confucius, and the mosques of 
Mohammed. We are told that in some parts of Europe 
and other lands where its tyrannic sceptre rules, women 
are seen harnessed side by side with a dog, drawing a 
wagon, while the husband rides, comfortably smoking 
his pipe. 



Christianity the Only Hope. 133 

When we speak of Christianity we mean the pure, sin- 
cere, and Christlike system of doctrines and precepts 
taught in the pages of the gospel. Here only can 
women hear the silvery words and golden sentences com- 
ing out freshly from the lips of the divine man Jesus, 
whose teachings and thoughts have ever been a benedic- 
tion to women, purifying their thoughts, molding their 
character, elevating their honor and saving their souls. 
In his teachings he ignored the distinctions of rank, 
race, sex, and simply taught, ''Blessed are the poor in 
spirit/' "Blessed are they that mourn,*' "Blessed are the 
meek/' "Blessed are the merciful." 

Isot only in what he taught did he raise the highest 
standard of the equality and mutual dependence of the 
sexes, but in his deeds and dealings while on earth. 
One of his most deeply spiritual conversations, recorded 
in the fourth chapter of John, is the one with the 
Samaritan woman at Jacob's well. He was so intent 
upon saving her precious soul that neither hunger nor 
the blazing heat of the summer sun could deter him. 
Even his disciples, still full of the spirit of Judaism, 
"marvelled" because he spake to the woman. On an- 
other occasion when a poor woman was brought to him 
by a mob of Pharisees that he might condemn her for 
adulten T , he. who had come to save the lost, simply ^airl: 
"He that is without sin, let him first cast a stone at her." 
He sympathizer! with women always. He took an in- 
terest in their domestic and social life: in sorrow and 



134 Persian Women. 

bereavement lie was first to extend his hand of mercy. 
He healed them when sick, raised their dear ones from 
the dead, and when they were wrong he rebuked them 
gently. Naturally, they loved him reverently and fol- 
lowed him whenever they could, with their tender min- 
istries even unto death and the resurrection morn. And 
when he ascended up to heaven he commanded his dis- 
ciples to take his blessed gospel and preach it unto all 
the world, without distinction of sex or race. So that 
wherever it has gone, eternal blessings have followed its 
preaching. To-day Christianity extends its message to 
all the women of the world as well as to men, a message 
of hope both for this life and the life to come, a message 
of love and mercy from Him who died upon the cross to 
save them from their sins. And as the result of the 
preaching of this gospel Christianity can boast of its hosts 
of elevated and redeemed women, whose moral, intel- 
lectual, and spiritual beauty is more radiant than the 
noonday sun. It can also boast of its thousands of dis- 
tinguished Florence Nightingales, Hanna Mores, Fran- 
ces Willards, and Clara Bartons; of its heroic female 
educators, doctors, nurses, lawyers, writers, sovereigns, 
mothers, sisters, and wives; of its temperance societies, 
Eed Cross societies, Dorcas Societies, sewing societies, 
home and foreign mission societies, all well organized 
and well managed in their Herculean crusade against sin 
and ungodliness; whose representatives are the first to 
place the cup of cold water to the parched lips of the 



Christianity the Only Hope. 135 

dying soldier upon the battlefield, the first by the bed- 
side of dying patients in the hospitals, bearing thither 
flowers and words of cheer, and first in feeding the hun- 
gry in the time of famine and starvation. Thanks be 
to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for Chris- 
tian womanhood. 

"Woman, why weepest thou? 
No sound! but women, veiled and speechless throng 
And look their wordless woe with haunting eyes, 
Far down, unseen, unsearched, as one who lies 
In unsearched, hidden chasms, they die. How strong 
The voice, that cries along th'abyss of heathen wrong! 

Woman, why weepest thou? 

"Woman, why weepest thou? 
Thy help is near! Thy Christ has heard the sound 
Of world-wide tears! His heralds swift proclaim 
Surcease of weeping through his mighty name. 
Woman, he died, and on the cross was bound 
To lift thee by unfathomed love from depths profound! 

Woman, why weepest thou?" 



CHAPTEE XIII. 

THE NON-MOHAMMEDAN WOMEN OP PERSIA. 

The population of Persia is supposed to be about 
9,000,000. These all belong to the faith of Islam with 
the exception of a little over 100,000, who are made up 
of Jews, Gluebres, Armenians, and Nestorians, These 
non-Mohammedan races, although in many respects 
they have conformed themselves to the customs and 
habits of their Moslem neighbors and rulers, have yet 
retained many of their race peculiarities, as well as 
their religious beliefs and ceremonies. 

The Jews number about 5,000. They are settled in 
about fifty cities throughout the country. The essen- 
tials of their religion are of course the same as in other 
parts of the world. But in recent years many of them 
have become skeptical and corrupt. Their matrimonial 
laws are now almost the same as those of Islam. They 
even practice polygamy and divorce at pleasure. Their 
women have become proportionately degraded and ignor- 
ant. They have somewhat more of freedom of associa- 
tion at home, and are not quite so closely veiled when 
they go out, but altogether they present a picture no 
less dark than the Moslems. 

The Ouebres, or "infidels," as they are called by their 
(136) 




Armenian I^ady. 



Non-Mohammedan Women of Persia. 137 

Mohammedan conquerors, are the Fire Worshipers, the 
followers of Zardosht, Zoroaster. They represent the 
remnant of the most ancient inhabitants of Persia. 
Most of them were killed or driven from the country by 
the Arabian invaders. Many of them fled to India 
where they are now known as Parsees. There are not 
more than 5,000 left in Persia, who live in the cities of 
Yezd and vicinity, in Teheran, and in Kerman. They 
are totally different from all the other inhabitants of 
the country and have kept their peculiar customs and 
habits nearly unchanged. Their religion forbids any 
association with those of other religions and owing to 
this exclusiveness very little is known of their social 
life though they are said to be truthful and honest. 
Their religion strongly recommends marriage, and for 
the reason that both men and women if married will be 
more likely to be happy and to lead a religious and 
virtuous life. Their Scriptures picture the unmarried 
life as a fertile tract of land uncultivated and overgrown 
with thorns and thistles: and married life as this same 
tract of land carefully cultivated and giving beauty, hap- 
piness, nourishment, and grace to all the world about it. 
The girls are married at the age of fifteen by their 
parents, they themselves have no freedom of choice. 
They are forbidden to marry their daughters to a man 
who is not a Zoroastrian in his religious belief. So 
great is the stress laid upon marriage that it is con- 
sidered a meritorious act for a rich man to endow a poor 



138 Persian Women. 

couple and thus enable them to marry. They have a 
very high standard of qualifications, both for husband 
and wife, but, of course with the wife, the greatest of 
these is obedience to her husband. They go so far as to 
assert that disobedience will be punished as a great sin 
after death. They have also very particular sanitary 
regulations, especially as regards cleanliness. 

The Armenians belong to the Indo-Germanic family 
of races, and number from 50,000 to 60,000. With the 
exception of the few who are merchants in the cities, 
the majority of them are peasants and live in small 
villages throughout the country. Their religion is the 
Christian religion, but in a ritualistic and superstitious 
form, similar to the Greek religion. 

The Armenian women as a class are ignorant and 
uneducated. Their features are regular and hand- 
some, and they are industrious and chaste. Their cos- 
tume differs from that of the Moslem women, consisting 
of long flowing skirts both indoor and out, and always 
with the head closely wrapt even within doors. They 
are married by their parents at the age of twelve or 
fifteen. Their marriage and betrothal ceremonies vary 
considerably from those of the Mohammedans both 
being performed by the priest. 

Among the Armenians, as among nearly all Orientals, 
the wife is considered the inferior of her husband in 
every respect. They are not permitted to talk loudly 
or freely in the presence of men. The Yeshmak being 



Non-Mohammedan Women of Persia. 139 

almost a* thick and binding as among the Moslems. 

Those of them whom have not been reached by tne 
Protestant missionaries are very low in the moral scale. 
Outbreaking profanity is often heard from them. 
Although believing in the name of Jeans Christ and in 
the Bible, yet as they depend entirely on the priest to read 
and interpret the Bible for them, their understanding is 
sadly darkened and their ideas paganish. It might 
truly be said of them, when unevangelized : "They 
have a name to live while they are dead." 

The Nestorians. — As this people have been so remark- 
able in the past as a missionary church and as the his- 
tory of modern missions in Persia is so closely connected 
with them, we will give a fuller account of them than 
of the other non-Mohammedan races. 

The Nestorians number altogether about 150,000, 
30,000 of whom have been living in Oroomiah, Persia, 
for many centuries, while the rest are scattered through 
the rugged mountains of Kurdistan. They are descend- 
ants of the ancient Arameans, who lived in Aram at the 
time of Jacob's sojourning there with Laban. The 
same country was called by the Greeks, at a later period, 
Syria. It is claimed that they have been Christians 
since the time of the apostles. The Bible was written 
in Syriac, their language, during the latter part of 
the second century. They received their name, which 
is purely ecclesiastical, from Nestorious, a bishop of 
Constantinople, who was condemned as a heretic by the 



140 Persian Women. 

Council of Ephesus (A.D. 430), for advocating the 
doctrine of the two natures and two persons of Christ. 
And all who followed him were, at a later period, called 
by their papist enemies "Nestorians" as a term of re- 
proach. For a period of at least twelve hundred years 
they were a strong missionary force in the East. Their 
missionaries, as early as the fourth century, were found 
in China. They went also to India, Arabia, and Tar- 
tary, spreading Christianity in obedience to the Master's 
command. Their schools of learning and theological 
training were famous. They represented the true 
evangelical spirit. 

But this Golden Age has past hundreds of years ago, 
and a dark epoch followed. Their self-sacrifice and 
devotion to the Master's cause stood the test of many 
and bitter persecutions under heathen, Parsees, and 
later Mohammedan sovereigns. But under the Tartars 
they were well-nigh exterminated. Their books and 
Bibles were burned, their schools and churches de- 
stroyed, and thousands were put to the sword. The 
history of their martyrs is most thrilling and inspiring. 
Women as well as men gave themselves to the execu- 
tioner's knife, singing songs of Zion. One of the most 
pathetic incidents found in their manuscripts is the story 
of Shmooni and her seven sons, who were martyred 
many centuries ago, for the sake of their religion. 

Tradition says that the heathen king, whose subjects 
they were, issued an edict that no one in his teritory 



Non-Mohammedan Women of Persia. 141 

should worship the God of the Christians. Any one 
doing so should suffer death. The mother's heart was 
filled with terror when she heard the proclamation of 
the edict, for she had taught her children from their 
earliest years to trust and pray to God. and like Daniel 
they could not give up their daily worship. Summoned 
by the king, they were arranged before him according to 
their ages. The eldest brother was then commanded to 
do something in the presence of the king and courtiers, 
which all knew to be contrary to the precepts of his 
religion. But he bravely replied: "0 king, we are 
ready to die but cannot transgress our law." The sover- 
eign immediately ordered that he first have his tongue 
cut out and then be put to death. And while he was 
being thus tortured, the mother and brothers were plead- 
ing and praying that he might have courage to die a 
martyr's death. 

The second brother in turn being tortured cried out: 
"0 king, thou hast power to cut me off from this tem- 
poral life, but I have a King who will crown me with 
eternal glory!" So saying he was burned at the stake. 

The third, the fourth, the fifth, and the sixth were 
tortured and put to death in the presence of their 
mother, who all the while prayed for them, picturing to 
them the glories of heaven and begging each one rather 
to die than to live unfaithful to God. 

The youngest one was left. He was a mere child, so 
young and tender and pure that the king endeavored 



142 Persian Women. 

to persuade him to deny his religion, offering him great 
rewards if he would do so. The poor mother casting 
herself at feet of the child, cried: "My son, my son, 
be merciful to me! From infancy thou hast been 
taught the truth, and now if thou forsake the God of 
thy mother thou wilt send her down to the grave in 
misery for her unfaithful son! See, thy brothers have 
died for the faith and have received their crown of 
glory, and thou hast witnessed their victory. The 
gates af heaven are opened, the angels are waiting to 
welcome you in, be brave! be true!" And the child 
exclaimed: "I am ready to die! I am ready to die!" 
And he too was burned to death. 

Last of all, the mother, having beheld the torture, 
death, and victory of her seven sons, was herself put to 
death. Thus mother and sons sealed their testimony 
with their blood and passed into glory. 

There is to-day, about six miles southwest of the city 
of Oroomiah, upon the slope of a mountain, a little mud 
hut, constructed after the manner of the Orientals, and 
surrounded by seven willow trees of unknown age. The 
place has for centuries been called, "Bnai-Shrnooni," 
Shmooni and her sons. 

Had we space we could tell many such pathetic stories 
of noble Christian women of this Christian nation, 
whose religious enthusiasm and fervor were in no less 
degree thrilling than that of Saint Theresa of Spam, 
and heroic mart}Tdom than that of the martyred maiden 



Non-Mohammedan Women of Persia. 143 

of Scotland. It is an unfortunate fact that whenever 
a body of Christians drift away from the true principles 
of the. gospel of Christ, their women are the first to 
suffer. Men quickly assume the role of tyrants and 
women of slaves. 

At the time the Nestorians were first visited by the 
missionaries, they had sunk into a deplorable chaos of 
ignorance. The women, particularly, were stupid and 
neglected, like their Mohammedan neighbors. Just one 
woman among the 150,000 Nestorians, and that one the 
sister of the Patriarch, had been taught to read. Physi- 
cally they were as strong as giantesses because of the 
hard labor they had been compelled to do, and this had 
by no means improved their personal appearance. 
Socially, though not so strictly secluded as the Moham- 
medan women, they were but little more free, either at 
home or elsewhere. They also bore the ignoble yoke of 
the "Yeshmak." Although polygamy was never practiced 
nor divorce permitted, yet wife-beating and unhappy 
family life were nothing unusual. The husband never 
thought of sitting at the table with his wife or walking 
on the street, with her any more than if they had been 
Moslems. Stealing, lying, and profanity were matters 
of every day practice, among women as well as men, and 
they did not seem to realize at all the blackness of such 
crimes. However low in many respects they had gotten, 
yet chastity has ever been the chiefest of virtues among 
them, of which they can well be proud. 



144 Pkrsian Women. 

As far as their religion was concerned, they loved 
the name of Christ as a sacred word, and kissed the Bible 
with solemn reverence as the sacred hook of God when- 
ever the opportunity offered, yet these opportunities 
were exceedingly rare, as there were only three Bibles 
among the Persian Xestorians, and these were kept 
wrapped in silk coverings and regarded with such super- 
stitious reverence that they were almost afraid to let 
anybody, much less a woman, touch them. These 
Bibles were in ancient Syriac, almost as different from 
the vernacular or spoken language of the people as 
ancient from modern Greek. 

The reading in their churches was mostly from the 
Liturgy, the writings of the "Fathers/' but the women 
were not even allowed to go to church and hear these. 
And even that was read by the priests in the un- 
familiar tongue of their ancestors. Feasting and fast- 
ing, prayers to the saints and pilgrimages to distant 
churches named for the dead saints, took the place of 
true repentance for sin and faith in God's forgiving 
love through the precious blood of the Savior. Such 
was the sad, sad condition of these once noble women 
of a noble church. 

"Oh! how changed from days of old! 
All is dross that once was gold!" 

We are exceedingly sorry that we cannot speak at 
greater length of the causes and consequences of this 




Mrs. Khnan-Eshoo Abraham. 
In Mountain Nestorian Costume, 



Non-Mohammedan Women of Persia. 145 

ignorance and superstition which overshadowed the 
whole race. We trust to be able to do so at another 
time and place. What has been said will be sufficient 
to give the reader a fair idea of the degradation of these 
women before the dawn of the morning, when the gospel 
was brought anew to them by the Christian missionaries 
from America. 

The Yezidees, "Devil Worshipers." — Although these 
people do not live directly in Persia, yet because they 
are so close to it, and next door neighbors of the Nes- 
torians, we will make a few remarks about them: 

They number about 200,000 souls scattered over a 
belt of territory three hundred miles wide; but the mass 
of them are to be found in the mountains of Northern 
and Central Kurdistan, and among the Sinjar hills of 
Northern Mesopotamia. 

Their linial origin is wrapt in obscurity; some claim 
that they are descendants of the "ten lost tribes/' while 
others trace them to Arabian origin. Their religion is 
a very peculiar one. While they believe in God as the 
supreme deity, and as the first cause of all things, yet 
they have nothing to do with Him either in the way of 
worship or sendee. They believe in one Melik Taoos, 
"King Peacock/' who is eternal, an emanation from 
God, and who became incarnate as Lucifer, and deceived 
Adam and Eve as Satan. They worship him through 
bronze images of peacocks and other birds, with but one 
eye. They believe also in one Sheikh Aadi, who is to 



146 Persian Women. 

them as Christ is to the Christians and Mohammed to 
the Moslems. He is supposed to have been descended 
from the divine nature, or at least is so- honored of God, 
that whatever Sheikh Aadi wills comes to pass. Their 
holy book is El Jilweh, i. e., "The Revelation/' which 
was written by Sheikh Aadi in Arabic. The original is 
the only copy in existence which is guarded at Shiekh 
Aadfs tomb with great care. 

Their social customs are peculiar to themselves. 
Men and women have more freedom of association in 
their great feasts; women are permitted to dance and 
sing with men. The law allows every man to marry 
not more than six wives; the girl has no freedom to 
choose her husband. She is virtually sold by the parents 
like cattle or land. If any girl does not prefer to get 
married, she can stay single at her father's home by 
paying him every year a sum of money which she must 
earn by hard labor. The marriage ceremonies are sim- 
ple but accompanied with great feasting. The climax 
of the wedding is reached as soon as the bride and 
groom have eaten together a loaf of bread made at the 
home of the Sheikh and brought to them by him. 
Liquor is freely used by both men and women at the 
wedding feast. It is the custom when the groom meets 
his bride for him first to throw at her a stone, and she 
has to bow her head to him as a sign of absolute subjec- 
tion to his authority. Then he will take a cake of bread 
and put it over her head as a sign of her being a merci- 



Non-Mohammedan Women of Peksia. 147 

ful woman to the poor and afflicted. It is not legal to 
consummate marriage during the month of April, that 
month being considered by them a holy month, nor on 
any Wednesday or Friday through the year. Women are 
treated almost like animals, without any rights or re- 
spect; their idea of immortality is very degrading. 
They believe in the transmigration of souls. Alto- 
gether they represent a very dark picture. No mission 
work has ever been attempted among them. 



CHAPTEE XIV. 
PERSIAN WOMEN AND CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 

The gospel of Christ is God's only remedy for sin, 
and missions to the heathen are the strongest evidence 
of God's love to mankind. We have spoken of the 
degradation and wretchedness of Persian women, as 
imposed npon them by the sceptre of custom and relig- 
ion. Now we come to deal with the remedy. 

One great mistake of the Church of Christ in past 
centuries has been in spending too much of her strength 
and energies in proving the doctrines of the Church. 
Even a Luther and a Calvin were content to show what 
Christianity is; the Church of the nineteenth century 
would fain show what it can do. "Pure religion and 
undeflled before God and the Father is this, to visit 
the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to 
keep himself unspotted from the world." As long as 
this is the aspiration and the motto of the Church it 
shall triumph over the world. 

Before we speak of what the gospel has done for the 
women of Persia in the last century, it would perhaps 
be best to sketch in a general way the earlier missionaries 
in Persia, The first Protestant missionaries Avho bore 
the banner of the cross to, modern Persia, were two 
Moravian preachers, Hocker and Rueffer, in 1747. 

They traveled through the eastern and southeastern 
(148) 



Persian Women and Missions. 149 

parts of Persia; were three times attacked by the ruth- 
less Kurds and robbed of everything they had. Deem- 
ing the work hopeless at that time, they made their way 
back via Egypt. 

In 1811 Henry Martyn made his memorable tour 
through Persia, and gave noble testimony for Christ at 
several great centers, and in the presence of fanatical 
priests of the Moslem faith. Dying early, he left as Ins 
legacy, the translation of the Xew Testament and Psalms 
into Persian. 

In 1829 Dr. C. G. Pfander, a German, was sent by 
the Basle Missionary Society and sojourned for awhile 
in the country. In 1833 he was joined by Rev. Frede- 
rick Haas from the same society. Shortly after the 
arrival of the latter, they were driven from the country 
by the intolerant government, leaving behind "Balance 
of Truth/' a masterly work written by the former on 
the comparative evidences of Mohammedanism and 
Christianity. This tract is still working in a silent way 
among some classes of Persians. 

In 1823 Dr. W. Glen, a missionary under the vener- 
able Scottish Missionary Society, settled with a few 
associates at Karaso, Russia, on the North side of the 
Caucasus mountains. Here Mohammed Ali, the son of 
a Persian judge, heard them preach, was converted, and 
baptized, thus becoming the first fruits of the kingdom 
among the Mohammedans. While here Dr. Glen trans- 
lated the Old Testament into Persian, which was com- 



150 Persian Women. 

pleted in 1847. In 1838 lie crossed the mountains and 
entered into Persia. After a short period of labor he 
returned to Scotland to superintend the publication of 
his own translation and that of Henry Martyn. At the 
age of seventy years he returned again to Persia to cir- 
culate these publications. 

In 1869 Robert Bruce, an Englishman, spent several 
months in Teheran, and from there went to Ispahan 
where he labored for some years. In 1876 Ispahan be- 
came a permanent station under the "Church Missionary 
Society." 

But the first really permanent work was begun 
in 1835 when Rev. Justin Perkins and Ashel Grant, 
M.D., under the "American Board/ 7 established a 
station in Oroomiah for the Nestorian people. 

These were soon reinforced by such illustrious men 
as Stoddard, Stocking, Wright, Ray, Coan, Cochran, 
Holliday, Shedd, and Labaree, together with the no less 
illustrious Misses Fiske and Rice, etc., and the reform- 
atory work was begun in an aggressive manner. The 
first school for boys was opened in a cellar in January, 
1836, with seven small, dirty, and ragged boys, who had 
to be paid each day to come and study. This school, 
later on, developed into Oroomiah College. 

In 1837 the first printing press was sent to the mission 
by the board. It was soon set in operation and is still 
going on with marvelous enterprise, printing for circu- 
lation both religious and educational literature. 



Woman's Work for Woman in Persia. 151 

In 1869 plans were made for the enlargement of the 
mission, which was effected by changing its name from 
the "Mission of the Nestorians" to> the "Mission to 
Persia." In 1871 it was transferred from the "Amer- 
ican Board" to the "Presbyterian Board of Foreign 
Missions/' 

In 1872 Rev. James Bassett was sent to Teheran, the 
capital, where he opened a new station for the Armen- 
ians, Jews, and Moslems. In 1873 Tabriz was occupied 
and made a station. In 1881, Hamadan, in 1885 Sal- 
mas, in 1892 Mosul in Assyria. In all these stations 
the work is done principally among the non-Moham- 
medan element, such as Nestorians, Armenians, and 
Jews. But indirectly, efforts have been made to extend 
the gospel message to the Mohammedans also. The 
results, although not very apparent, give hope for a 
future harvest. 

The general statistics of the year 1896 show as the 
result of the work about 120 congregations, an average 
attendance of 6,500, and in Sabbath schools about 4,000, 
and a company of about 2,470 communicants, and a host 
of something like 3,500 scholars, both boys and girls, 
in the schools, for which we praise the Lord. 

WOMAN'S WORK FOR WOMAN IN PERSIA. 

We will turn our attention now to that particular 
branch of the missionary work which is in most direct 
connection with the women of Persia. This I consider 



152 Persian Women. 

the most important for four reasons: First, because 
their number is far greater than that of the men. Sec- 
ond, because their condition is more degraded and pit- 
iable. Third, because their influence, either for good or 
evil, is stronger. As it is said, "The factor that most 
universally molds society is woman; the boy is father of 
the man, but the woman is mother of the boy." In en- 
lightening women, the missions enlighten not only 
women but men, children and society. I agree fully 
with the statement made by an intelligent Hindoo on 
this point: "Reach the hearts of the women of our 
country and you will soon get at the heads of the men." 
The future of the Orient depends largely upon what 
missions will do for its women. Fourth, because its 
difficulties are greater. It is natural that any great 
work should have great difficulties. One who has not 
experienced them can hardly appreciate those of a mis- 
sionary, especially in trying to reach the women and 
establish schools for them in these Eastern countries. 

The very idea of educating women. was hateful and 
distasteful, not only to men but to the women them- 
selves. When a lady missionary would ask a woman if 
she wanted to be taught to read, she would simply shrug 
her shoulders and reply: "I am a woman!" Again, 
the custom of early betrothal and marriage was greatly 
against it. Even the Nestorian women, among whom 
the mission work began, were betrothed at the age of 
twelve, after which it was impossible for them to go to 




Miss Fidelia Fisk3, 



Woman's Work for Woman in Persia. 153 

school. For, from that time on they were the hand- 
maids and servants of the home. They had to do all the 
work. And as the majority of the people were poor and 
could not afford servants, sending their daughters, or 
permitting their women to go, to the missionaries for 
instruction was out of the question. Moreover, the peo- 
ple looked upon the missionaries as foreigners, and had 
no confidence in them. The more ignorant of them sus- 
pected them of some kind of magic, and believed that 
they would put the girls into balloons and fly them over 
to their own country, where parents could get them 
back no more. Add to these the lack of books 
and all other means for instruction, and you may 
form some idea of the obstacles which beset the 
earliest efforts to educate and Christianize the women 
of Persia. 

In spite of all these barriers, however, the work was 
undertaken. Noble Mrs. Grant, with her scholarly 
mind, her great heart, and her enormous zeal, although 
she was suffering from the effects of the climate and had 
her hands full of domestic duties, was busy planning 
for the opening of a school exclusively for girls, which 
she felt sure would be the only way to elevate and lift 
up the women from the awful pit into which they had 
sunk. On March 12, 1838, the first girls' day school 
was opened, with only four pupils. Mrs. Grant suc- 
ceeded in making such a fine impression, both upon 
parents and scholars, that within two weeks the number 



154 Persian Women. 

of pupils was doubled, and by June 19 she had four 
times as many as when she began. But the sacred 
work, commenced under so great encouragement, was 
to suffer sorely in the death of Mrs. Grant, which took 
place on the 14th of January, 1839. 

After her death the school was continued under the 
charge of Mr. Holliday. And then passed into the 
hands of Dr. Wright. As these gentlemen had other 
urgent duties in connection with the mission, and very 
little time to devote to the girls' school, it dragged out 
a half-dead existence, until Miss Fidelia Fiske, of Shel- 
burne, Mass., arrived in Oroomiah, June 14, 1843. She 
soon realized that to elevate womanhood she must begin 
with girlhood. The first Syriac sentence she learned 
was to beg for girls: "Give me your daughters!" 
Looking into the situation, she at once determined, 
though with great anxiety, to make the school a board- 
ing school, in which case the girls would be separated 
from the vice and corruption of home and society life, 
and would be under the direct and continuous good in- 
fluences of the school. But the difficulties and discour- 
agements in the way of such a plan were immense. Few 
people believed it could ever materialize. Even Priest 
Abraham, one of the pious men who had been under 
missionary influence for many years, said: "I cannot 
bear the reproach of having my daughter live with you." 
But Miss Fiske, ever hopeful, and encouraged by Mar 
Yohannan, who said to her: "You get ready and I find 



Woman's Work for Woman in Persia. 155 

girls/"' commenced the simple preparations for the un- 
dertaking. 

When the day came for the school to he opened there 
was not a single pupil present. But before very long, 
while she was sitting at her window, she saw Mar Yohan- 
non coming in with two little girls, seven and ten years 
old. The honorable Bishop placed the hands of the 
little girls in here and said in his broken English: 
"They be your daughters, no man take them from your 
hand." 

Although the little things were dirty and ungainly 
in appearance, the missionary rejoiced greatly over them, 
and in a few days the number was increased to six. The 
work began by cleansing the bodies and garments of the 
poor creatures, for this is the first step toward mental 
and moral development. Such were the initial circum- 
stances of woman's work for woman in Persia. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE AGGRESSIVE DEVELOPMENT. 

The little school, begun under such discouraging 
circumstances, was not to be confined to its original nar- 
row limits. A great future awaited it. For the first 
year after its opening, from the winter of 1843-44, the 
mission was obliged to pay the pupils for going to 
school, as their parents were too poor and too indiffer- 
ent to do anything to aid them. About 25 cents a week 
was appropriated for the needs of the day scholars, while 
the boarders had their beds besides. By the next winter 
the students were asked to pay for their bread. So 
great was Miss Fiske's influence, both over the girls and 
their parents, that they began to be really anxious to do 
anything they could to secure the advantages of the 
school. For instance, a widow brought her only bed to 
the school for the use of her daughter, saying: "I can 
sleep on the rush mat if you will only receive her into 
the school." In a few years they were charged a little 
tuition also. Thus they were being taught gradually to 
help themselves. 

The number of the pupils increased very rapidly. In 
1844 they had enrolled twenty-six, and in 1845 the num- 
ber had gone up to forty. The need for other teachers 
(156) 



The Aggressive Development. 157 

and helpers was greatly felt. In November, 1847, Miss 
Mary Susan Rice, sent by the board, arrived 111 Oroomiah 
to join Miss Fiske in her labors. From that time until 
the year 1858, like two angels of mercy, these two 
devoted women worked together in the same cause. 
When Miss Fiske returned to America, her mantle was 
thrown upon Miss Rice, who took the absolute care oi 
the Seminary for eleven years more. 

While Misses Fiske and Rice held the principalship 
of the school, the native teachers who had been educated 
in the male seminar}-, rendered most valuable service, 
both in teaching and in looking after the temporal 
affairs of the school. One of these was Yonan, now 
known as Malek Yonan, the father of the writer, who 
was a teacher from 1847 to 1860. Dr. Stocking and 
Dr. Wright also gave assistance as needed. 

The course of study was marvelously developed within 
a few years. Miss Fiske had from the beginning deter- 
mined to make it as nearly similar as possible to that of 
Mount Holyoke Seminary, from which she was a gradu- 
ate. Of course this could not be done at once, as the 
girls were so utterly untrained and untaught before 
coming to the school. Besides, there were no books to 
supply the need. But in the course of time it equaled 
if it did not surpass most schools of its kind. The Bible 
was the main study in the course, for which both 
teachers and scholars seemed to have a sacred passion. 
Besides the Bible, they were taught reading, in both 



158 Persian Women. 

modern and ancient Syriac, writing, singing, composi- 
tion, grammar, geography, arithmetic, and theology, 
with oral instruction in physiology, chemistry, natural 
philosophy, and astronomy. The teachers were also 
accustomed to translate orally to them such volumes as 
Paradise Lost, Course of Time, Edwards' History of 
Eedemption, Pike's Persuasions to Early Piety, etc. 

The course of instruction was so well arranged that it 
stimulated their minds, elevated their morals, and devel- 
oped their piety. 

But such a course of study for those people and cir- 
cumstances, might have done more harm than good, if 
it had not been accompanied by domestic training. The 
teachers saw clearly that the only hope of transforming 
their homes as they wished to do was to teach the girls 
system and order, to train them in hand, as well as brain 
work. The experiment was at once made, and although 
with poor success in the beginning, at the last they could 
entrust almost the whole domestic management of the 
school to the pupils. 

The most remarkable feature of the school was its 
rapid development in the religious life of its pupils. It 
was the special desire of the principals that it should be 
so, and particular attention was given to prayer, medi- 
tation, and devotional Bible study. Early in the morn- 
ing, soon after rising, a bell was rung and for twenty 
minutes not a sound could be heard in all the house, for 
all the girls were engaged in silent devotion. At the 



The Aggressive Development. 159 

end of that time another bell would ring to call the 
girls into one room for family prayer. The Scriptures 
were read and expounded briefly and prayers were 
offered. At a quarter before nine o'clock the school was 
opened with prayer and Scripture reading, and again at 
bed time the bell rang for prayer. 

Miss Fiske in giving a programme of a Sabbath in the 
school, thus writes to a friend in December, 1855, just 
twelve years after the beginning of the school: "The 
first bell, Sabbath morning, is at half past five, when 
all rise and dress for the day. Morning prayers are at 
half past six; then comes breakfast, and, our few morn- 
ing duties being done, the girls retire to study their 
Sunday schools lessons, and sometimes ask to meet to- 
gether for prayer. At half past nine, we attend Syriac 
service in the chapel. The Sabbath school follows that, 
numbering now about 200 pupils. About two-thirds of 
our scholars are teachers in it, and it is a good prepara- 
tion for teaching in their homes. Those who do not 
teach form a class. We then go home to lunch, flavored 
with pleasant remembrances and familiar explanations 
of the morning service. The afternoon service com- 
mences at two o'clock, and our Bible lessons an hour 
before supper. At supper all are allowed to ask Bible 
questions, and before leaving the table we have evening 
prayers." 

Thus the holy day is ended. Besides these, there is 
a weekly prayer meeting on Tuesday evening, a lecture 



160 Persian Women. 

on Friday afternoon, and on Wednesday, as well as Sab- 
bath evening, the school meets in two divisions for 
prayer. It may probably seem to some that the super- 
intendents of the school carried to an extreme the relig- 
ious exercises, and ran some risk of making them a bur- 
den rather than a pleasure. But it did not have that 
effect — quite the contrary. The principal and teachers, 
as well as the scholars, loved their religious meetings 
dearly and were not willing to miss any one of them. 
"I was glad when they said unto me let us go into the 
house of the Lord!" 

Miss Fiske continued the principal and teacher of the 
school until July, 1858, when she returned to America, 
leaving it in care of her associate, Miss Eice, until 1869, 
other missionary ladies and the faithful native assistants 
rendering valuable service, at times. Miss Eice was suc- 
ceeded in 1869 by Miss Jennie Dean, who had helped 
some the previous year while learning the language. 
In 1875, and for many years after, Miss Mary K. Van 
Duzee was associated with Miss Dean. In 1891 Misses 
Medbry and Eussell took charge of the seminary and are 
still there. Each succeeding teacher and principal has 
aimed with great earnestness to raise the standard of its 
literary course. Of late years a preparatory department 
has been added, conducted to some extent according to 
the kindergarten system. The reports of December, 
1896, show a full attendance of about 200, of whom 75 
are boarders, and 21 have come from the mountains. A 



The Aggressive Development. 161 

great advance has also been made in the financial 
department. Most of the pupils pay full board and 
have all the care needed for their rooms. They also 
pay part of their tuition. 

From all we can hear, the young ladies at present m 
control of the school are doing an excellent work, and 
are striving to make the school one of the highest 
grade and complete in all its branches. But we have 
sometimes feared that the ambition for a high literary 
standard, which is so much needed, might lessen the zeal 
for Christian training, and thus the religious fervor, for 
which in early years it was so remarkable, suffer decrease. 

Most valuable assistance has been contributed by the 
native helpers, from the beginning to the present day, 
in teaching, superintending, and in living among the 
students. Without them the missionaries could not 
have accomplished nearly so much. Some of them have 
been efficient helpers for many successive years. 
Deacon Siyad taught for over twenty-five years, Malek 
Yonan for thirteen years, and Hosheboo for twenty 
years. There have been others, such as Esli, Rachel, 
etc., who have taught a few years each. 

When Mar Yohannon, that man of God, returned to 
Persia after a visit to America in 1843, he was asked by 
the Mohammedan governor of Oroomiah who could 
speak a little English: 

"What are the wonders of America ?" 

The Bishop replied: 



162 Persian Women. 

"The blind they do see, the deaf they do hear, and 
the women they do read; they be not beasts." 

Having visited Mount Holyoke Seminary he often 
said: 

"When I see such a school here, I die!" (Meaning 
that then he would be ready to die.) 

If this noble. Nestorian were living to-day to see the 
school which started with the two little ragged girls he 
brought, as it is now, he would assuredly turn his face 
toward heaven and praise God for the transforming 
power of the gospel, and be able to repeat for his own 
country: 

"And the women they do read; they be r not beasts!" 

THE VILLAGE SCHOOLS. 

There are 30,000 Nestorians who live in the plain of 
Oroomiah. Of these about 1,500 souls dwell in the 
city of Oroomiah; the rest are scattered among the small 
villages over the plain. The seminary has been located 
in the city. Besides the town girls who attended it, 
many from the villages came. But that was too slow 
a way to reach the masses that were in darkest ignorance. 
Plans were made, soon after the establishment of the 
Female Seminary, to open schools in the villages, both 
for boys and girls. At first the graduates of the Male 
Seminary did the teaching. Later, it was left almost 
entirely to the graduates of the Female Seminary. In 
the begininng the work was beset with difficulties but it 



The Village Schools. 163 

was quickly on its feet. As early as 1840 the number of 
girls in attendance at the village schools was 40. In two 
years it had gone up to 128. In 1850 it was 166, and 
in 1853, 365. 

That the reader may get some idea of the work done 
through these schools, we will give an account of the 
examination of a. school at Geog-Tapa (the home of the 
writer), in the year 1854, as given in "Woman and Her 
Savior in Persia :" 

"Thursday, June 1st, was a great day in Geog-Tapa. 
The forenoon was devoted to the examination of a girls' 
school, taught by Hanee and Xargis, graduates of the 
preceding year (of the seminary), and both living in 
the village. As it was a feast day, a large number were 
present from neighboring villages. At nine o'clock the 
examination commenced in the spacious church, which 
was crowded, the congregation numbering about 600 
in all. The fifty pupils occupied the middle of the 
church. The studies in which they were examined were 
ancient and modern Syriac, geography, arithmetic, both 
Scripture and secular history, reading, and spelling. 
And in all of them the students did credit both to them- 
selves and to their teachers. The singing that day 
especially pleased the parents, many of whom exclaimed 
with wonder: 'Our daughters can learn as well as our 
sons!' Miss Fiske rejoiced to see her children's chil- 
dren, in the pupils of her own first pupil, who gracefully 
managed her little flock with an easy control." 



164 Persian Women. 

The teachers not only taught them to read, but to 
pray and to love Jesus. They were in the habit of pray- 
ing with one of their pupils alone each day, besides open- 
ing the school with prayer. These village schools, 
primarily for the purpose of preparing the pupils for 
entering the seminary, also served a good purpose in 
training the native teachers for better usefulness in 
Sunday schools and religious work among the women. 

The number of the schools has increased now to some- 
thing like forty, and some of them are self-supporting. 
Others receive help. The course of study also has 
advanced to higher grades, and in man}? - respects these 
schools are fountians of great blessing to homes and 
country. 



CHAPTEE XVI. 
EVANGELICAL WORK AMONG WOMEN. 

The teachers of the seminary, from its early days, 
made every effort to reach the mothers of the pupils and 
also other women. This was chiefly to be done by get- 
ting them to attend the meetings. But the women were 
very unwilling to attend the services with men, as they 
had never done so before. The first attempt was made 
by Miss Fiske in 1844 in one of the rooms of the semin- 
ary. At the first meeting there were only five who, in 
the face of prejudice and bashfulness could make up 
their minds to listen to the gospel in company with men. 
The number soon increased to forty. And on the third 
Sabbath the first fruit of the public services was seen. 
One of the women, noted for her perverseness and high 
temper, was brought to such conviction that she fell 
down upon the ground as meek as a lamb, with confes- 
sion of her many sins. 

This beginning in the seminary having proved a suc- 
cess, the teachers, both missionaries and natives, after 
teaching six days would go out on Saturday to spend the 
Sabbath in the villages around, teaching and preaching 
the way to the kingdom of Christ. The first village 
(165) 



1 66 Persian Women. 

they visited was Geog-Tapa,, which has been ever since 
the foremost in Christian activity. 

Wherever Miss Fiske went she had crowds of women 
around her, most of whom, of course, went at first merely 
out of curiosity. Her method of teaching was simple. 
She would always begin by requesting silence which it 
usualty took some time to secure. Then she would ask 
a few questions such as these: "Who was the first 
man?" "Who was the first woman? 7 ' etc. After a thor- 
ough drill on two or three of these Bible questions she 
would speak a few practical words and after several 
prayers the meeting would be dismissed. 

On one occasion, when Miss Fiske had been on a 
constant strain all through the week, she went on Satur- 
day to Geog-Tapa to spend the Sabbath. Sabbath 
morning, after conducting a prayer meeting, and teach- 
ing the Sabbath school, she attended the preaching ser- 
vice with the women. 

As she sat on the earthen floor with no support for her 
back she felt utterly exhausted. A Christlike Xestorian 
woman sitting close behind her, noticed how very tired 
she was and bade her lean against her. At first Miss 
Fiske declined. But the kindhearted woman putting her 
strong arm around her drew her back and said: "If you 
love me, lean hard!" Miss Fiske yielded and was much 
refreshed. In this little incident the missionary heard 
the Master's voice speaking to her, and embodied the 
message in the following beautiful lines: 



Evangelical Work Among Women. 167 

"Child of my love, lean hard; 
And let me feel the pressure of thy care. 
I know thy burden, child; I shaped it, 
Poised it in mine own hand — made no proportion 
Of its iveight to thine unaided strength; 
For even as I laid it on, I said, 
I shall be near; and while she leans on me, 
This burden shall be mine, not hers. 
So shall I keep my child in the circling arms 
Of mine own love. Here lay it down, nor fear 
To impose it on a shoulder which upholds 
The government of worlds. Yet closer come — 
Thou art not near enough; I would embrace thy care, 
So I might feel my child reposing on my breast. 
Thou lovest me? I know it. Doubt not then, 
But loving me, lean hard." 

The interest increased continually. All were eager to 
learn. *The Sunday school was soon opened to meet 
the demands of the anxious men and women, some of 
whom were over fifty years of age. Each scholar was 
given a spelling book, and a Testament was promised to 
anyone who would learn to read. It was not long before 
numbers of them had their Testaments. The work 
went on from village to viDage, the interest growing 
stronger and stronger. In 1850 when Miss Rice visited 
one of these villages, there were three hundred women 
who listened anxiously to her message. So great was 
the earnestness that women carried their Bibles to the 
cotton fields and vineyards, so that they might read a 
passage in any moment's opportunity. 



* My father has the honor of being- the first man to organ- 
ize the Sunday schools in Persia. 



168 Persian Women. 

In 1854 my father had a class in the Sunday school 
of Geog-Tapa that numbered from forty to sixty women, 
most of whom were oyer fifty years of age. He taught 
them the story of the Old Testament from the creation 
to the reign of David. One among them who was 
totally blind, could tell by heart all the stopping places 
of Israel in the desert, and could even point them out 
on the map by the touch. 

The most remarkable part of it was the interest shown 
by husbands in teaching their wives to read. Those 
who but a few years before had thought it a disgrace 
for a woman to read and go to church, could now be 
seen worshiping with them in the same place. 

Thus far the labors of the missionaries had been con- 
fined to the villages of Oroomiah. But in 1851, during 
the seminary vacation, the teachers and a number of 
missionaries and native helpers, started out for the 
mountain districts of Kurdistan to labor among the 
Nestorians, who live in those regions beyond. They 
spent several months in . evangelistic work, although 
the difficulties of such an undertaking were enormous; 
viz., the ruggedness of the mountains, the ignorance of 
the people, and the opposition of the Nestorian patri- 
arch, whose home was in Kurdistan. Yet the heralds of 
the cross went forward from village to village, even in 
that distant land, preaching the word, and wherever 
they went they had multitudes to listen. The founda- 
tion for this work had been laid when Dr. Ashel Grant, 




Teachers and Graduating Class, Fiske Seminary. 



Women's Organizations. 169 

in 1842, traveled through that region. Besides, many 
studies in both seminaries were from there and carried 
home with them the seeds of truth, though no wide- 
spread impression had been made until the expedition 
above mentioned, when the missionaries spent some time 
among the people. They sowed seed with faith and 
courage which.* watered by the work done since, has 
brought forth an abundant harvest. 

WOMEN'S ORGANIZATIONS. 

Women's meetings for Bible study and religious 
exercises, as we have seen, were already successfully 
established in many places. But they had no organized 
societies for the promulgation of the gospel until the 
year 1885. It was when the jubilee or semi-centennial 
anniversary of the mission was observed. The great 
assembly met in the premises of the Oroomiah College. 
It was an occasion of great joy and spiritual uplifting. 
The addresses, lectures, and sermons both by natives and 
missionaries were eloquent and inspiring. More than 
half of the 1,500 people present were women and girjs. 
Besides the public exercises, which all the women at- 
tended most eagerly, the women met together separately 
for prayer and consultation under Mrs. J. H. Shedd, 
who was a fine organizer, and who has done more than 
any missionary since the days of Misses Fiske and Rice. 
At one of these meetings a "mite" society was started for 
the purpose of training the women in systematic giving. 



170 Persian Women. 

The membership has steadily increased ever since and 
great good has been done. "Knooshyas," or women's 
meetings, were also organized at that time. 

The whole plain of Oroomiah was divided into five 
districts. At the largest village in each district the 
women would gather from all the neighboring country 
three times a year. All five of these meetings are held 
on the same day and last one whole day. Native officers 
preside over them, and carefully prepared papers are 
read on topics which have been assigned beforehand. 
The subjects for discussion are usually religious, educa- 
tional, or domestic, and the meetings are open to all, 
whether members or not. They are calculated to do 
great good as long as they are rightly conducted, and 
vigorously kept up, which we are afraid is not so in this 
respect. 

PENTECOSTAL BLESSINGS. 

"We have stated briefly the beginnings and growth of 
the gospel work, and how the seed was sown in different 
directions among the women. Now we will mention a 
few facts in regard to the copious outpourings of the 
Spirit, the ingathering of many into the kingdom and 
the anointing of servants for his ministry. From the 
beginning of the mission until 1846, although the gospel 
truth was fervently and powerfully presented, few 
showed signs of conversion. 

In 1845 the mission had undergone severe trials and 
persecutions from Mar Shimmon, the Nestorian Patri* 



Pentecostal Blessings. 171 

arch. The work at one time seemed to have gone to 
pieces. But instead of being discouraged, the mis- 
sionaries became mighty in prayer and in faith. One 
of them said in the autumn of that year: 

"God never formed a soul that Christ cannot redeem 
from the power of sin. I know this people are sunk in 
sin and degradation, but Jesus died to save them and 
we may see them forever stars in his crown of rejoicing, 
if we are only humble and faithful enough to lead them 
to the Savior." 

When God wants to manifest his great power among 
men, he first begins with his own, and works through 
them for others. The first hopeful indications were 
seen among the students of the Male Seminary in 
earnest prayers and pleading supplications for their own 
sins. From there it spread, first touching the Female 
Seminary and from there to the villages, like advancing 
prairie fire. 

The first Monday of January, 1846, was a day of fast- 
ing and prayer. Miss Fiske, at morning devotions, iold 
her pupils in her touching and impressive manner, that 
many were praying for them on that day in a distant 
land. (She referred to the days of special prayer 
observed at Mount Holyoke Seminary where Miss Fiske 
had been educated, for the mission in Persia.) When 
the girls were dismissed to their studies two of them, 
Sanum and Sarah, lingered behind and approaching 
their teacher said in a low voice, "Mav we have to-day to 



172 Persian Women. 

care for our souls?" Having no closet, they went to 
the wood cellar and spent the day in prayer and suppli- 
cation. This was the beginning. 

One evening the teachers of both seminaries got 
together and continued in prayer until midnight, and 
the Spirit was poured out upon them. For three weeks 
the spirit of prayer so pervaded both schools that it 
seemed like an unending Sabbath. The cellars, the 
closets, and all the corners of the premises were occupied 
day and (for the most part) night by the weeping, peni- 
tent girls. Before the close of the school term, over 
fifty, in the two schools, had given themselves to God. 
And when the summer vacation came, they went to their 
homes carrying with them the glad tidings of the gospel 
so that the whole community was awakened that year 
and many were added to the kingdom. 

The next great awakening took place in the year 1849. 
The revival of 1846 had been principally among the 
students of the two seminaries, and under the influence 
of the missionaries themselves. The revival of 1849 
was more general, and the chief instruments were the 
native helpers, both men and women. These also, like 
the missionaries in 1846, began with prayer and suppli- 
cation for themselves. Among them may be mentioned 
John and Yonan, both natives of Geog-Tapa, who 
preached with power and earnestness. Their zeal, earn- 
estness, and love for souls was not excelled by that of 
Wesley, Whitefield, and Finney. Among the women, 



Pentecostal Blessings. 173 

Sanum, Sarah, and Moressa took the lead. They went 
from house to house in their village praying with the 
women. One old woman who was over seventy years of 
age entered into the work with a zeal that might shame 
many a younger woman of this generation. She toiled 
to hring more aged women to the Cross, taking them to 
her closet and praying for their salvation. The old 
woman continued to work in this way until her death 
and when she was dying she said, "I am going after 
Jesus!" 

In another village, noted for its vice and ungodliness, 
often called "Sodom," old men and women were seen in 
the stables and bams praying for hours at a time. 
Visitors from all around thronged to the seminary to 
inquire the way of salvation. One came to Miss Fiske, 
throwing herself upon her and exclaiming with tears, 
"Do tell me what to do, or where to go to get rid of my 
sins!" How gladly she was pointed to the "Lamb of 
God, which taketh away the sin of the world." The 
ministers and missionaries rejoiced to see how many 
husbands, old and young, were anxious and praying for 
their wives and wives for their husbands. 

The next great revival took place in the year follow- 
ing, 1850, and the next in 1856, in both of which the 
interest commenced in the seminaries. 

On the day preceding the revival of 1856, the mis- 
sionaries, including Miss Fiske, met together in the 
Female Seminary and discussed with deep feeling, the 



174 Persian Women. 

dullness and lukewarmness among the Christians. 
After the meeting, when Miss Fiske returned to her 
room, she found that all the pupils and Miss Bice had 
gone to bed. She was left alone. Her thoughts 
brooded sadly over the state of her charge. She could 
not sleep, but lay thinking over the duties of the morn- 
ing. Eleven o'clock struck and there was a knock at 
the door. Weary and worn with anxiety and sleepless- 
ness, she almost dreaded to open it lest there should be 
some further detention from her much needed rest. 
She did open it, however, and there stood one of her 
pupils who asked gently: 

"Are you very tired?" 

•'No, not very; why do you ask?" 

"I cannot sleep, our school has been resting on me 
all day and I thought perhaps you would help me pray." 

The spell was broken, and with a full heart Miss 
Fiske exclaimed: 

"Come in, thou blessed of the Lord!" 

They laid all their burdens at the feet of Christ and 
then slept sweetly until morning. The next day the 
good work began. 

In the following year, 1857, there was again a gracious 
outpouring of the Spirit upon the pupils and the com- 
munity. 

In the year 1858, Miss Fiske took her final farewell 
from her field of labor to return to her home in America. 
In the last meeting there were ninety-three sisters in 



Pentecostal Blessings. 175 

Christ to bid her good-bye. She could well praise the 
Lord for what he had wrought. 

During the four following years, when Miss liice had 
charge of the seminary, revival followed revival. Thus 
in nineteen years from the establishment of the sem- 
inary there had been twelve remarkable outpourings of 
the Holy Spirit, and a great number of its students had 
been converted. Surely the prophecy of Joel is being 
fulfilled in these latter days also. 

Some interesting facts are suggested by these awaken- 
ings in the Oroomiah mission. 

First. These awakenings always began with the mis- 
sionaries themselves, and worked out through them to 
others. 

Second. That all these revivals came in answer to 
prayer. Not only agoninzing prayer by the principals 
of the schools, but also by those interested for them in 
America. Let me quote from a little book on Persia 
by Eev. Thomas Laurie, D.D.: 

"While those two inquirers on the first Monday of 
1846 were making closets among the wood in the cellar, 
it is distinctly remembered by some that Mary Lyon 
said that morning, 'We must pray more lor Miss Elske 
and her school.' Her words were heeded, and the an- 
swer noted when they heard of what took place in 
Persia that day. Almost the same things might be said 
of the same day in 1847 and 1849. The revival of 1856 
began unexpectedly, but, when on the night of February 



176 Persian Women. 

17, that pupil could not sleep because the whole school 
lay on her heart, and at midnight sought the help of 
her teacher in intercession, letters from America showed 
that they were not wrestling alone." 

We are confident the same great results would follow 
the same measures everywhere and always. What we 
need in these days is only an awakening among God's 
missionaries, preachers and people. Then the world 
outside could not help feeling the influence. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

TRANSFORMING POWER OP THE GOSPEL OP 

CHRIST. 

The mission work has been criticised by some on the 
ground that its converts are not sincere, that they accept 
Christianity only from convenience and mercenary 
motives. Others object to these religious awakenings 
on the ground that they are too sensational. Nine out 
of ten of the Christians in Oroomiah have been con- 
verted during the revivals which we have described. 
And in order to show the unfairness of all criticisms, 
let us judge by the character of the converts, and at the 
same time we trust to show something of the transform- 
ing power of the gospel of Christ, in the individual 
Christian and in all his relations of life. 

In the first place, let us note the prayerfulness of 
these Nestorian Christians. 

An unconverted person rarely takes any pleasure in 
prayer. Only those whose hearts have been touched 
by the love of Christ and who recognize their need of 
the saving, cleansing, and sustaining power of God can 
take delight in spending certain hours of every day in 
meditation and supplication. Before the revival of 
1846, although some of the men and women who 
(177) 



178 Persian Women. 

attended the seminaries were in direct connection with 
mission work, attending services and probably going 
through the form of prayer, yet they had little of the 
feeling of it. But after the revival a tide of humility 
and deep emotion swept the community. The new con- 
verts manifested a great and increasing longing for com- 
munion with God. 'Their Oriental metaphors and 
figurative language can hardly find expression in any 
other language. The following will illustrate: 

"0 God, we beg that the dog may have a single crumb 
from the table of the Master!" "We are prodigals, hun- 
gry, thirsty, naked, far from the Father's house, Lord 
save me, I perish!" "All our righteousness is as filthy 
rags!" "Blessed Savior, we will cling to the skirts of 
thy garments and hope for mercy till our hands are cut 
off!" "0 Lord, we pray that we may never deny thee, 
even to the blood of our neck!" "We are hanging over 
a lake of fire with a heavy load upon our backs, by a 
single hair and that is almost broken!" "We are in a 
ship burned almost down to the water!" "The flames 
are just seizing upon us, God, have mercy, Son of 
David, have mercy." 

These expressions would often be accompanied by 
beating the breast like the publican in the temple, or 
bowing the face upon the ground. Once a poor 
woman came to the seminary weeping for her sins. Miss 
Fiske came to her and prayed, pointing her to Jesus 
who was wounded for her sins. She then asked the 



Transforming Power of the Gospel, i 



79 



poor woman to pray for herself. "But 1 can't pray! 
I don't know your prayers!" 

"Don't try to pray like me or like anybody, but just 
tell God how you feel and what you want/' said the 
teacher. 

"May I tell God just what is in my heart?" 

Being assured on this point, she fell on her face weep- 
ing aloud, sa}dng amid sobs: 

"0 God, I am not fit even for an old broom to sweep 
with.*'* And there she stopped. 

Another was known as "Praying Sarah." She was the 
pupil who was invited to pray with Deacon Isaac, brother 
of the Patriarch. 

Miss Fiske had a room where they used to meet often 
for prayer. They called it "Bethel" for really it was a 
Bethel for many of them. The voice of prayer would 
often be heard at midnight on the housetop, when every- 
thing was quiet. Miss Fiske often knelt with them 
upon the fresh hay in the manger to pray, and this, not 
only in the time of revivals, but continually. They 
also confidently expected what they prayed for, and 
claimed the promises of God in answer to their prayer. 
If we remember that these people, before their conver- 
sion, were obstinate, proud, and hard as a rock, we can 
never doubt that the grace of God can change a heart 
of stone to a heart of flesh. 

In the second place, their love and devotion to the 
Bible shows the genuineness of their conversion. 



180 Persian Women. 

Unconverted persons seldom read the Bible. I think 
one reason is because such persons and the Bible do not 
agree very well upon a great many subjects. The Bible 
hurts their conscience every time they read it. There- 
fore they avoid it as far as possible. Only he who is 
changed by the Holy Ghost takes delight in meditating 
upon the precepts and promises of the sacred writ. 
Here too we find these Nestorian converts on the highest 
level of passion and longing for the word of God. I 
do not think anywhere in the Christian world could be 
found persons who have learned the Bible more readily 
or lovingly than they. They are more like Scotch 
Christians in this respect. The young converts would 
take their Testaments with them wherever they went, 
in the field, in the vineyard, and at home. When the 
noon hour came, while some would sleep and rest for 
the afternoon's toil, these converts would employ it in 
reading and memorizing the Scriptures. Some of them 
were so poor they could not afford to burn oil at night, 
so they read by moonlight. When they spun they 
would fasten the book on a shelf so that they could read 
at the same time. Once when a woman was asked if 
she could repeat her Sunday school lesson, she replied: 
"0 yes, I repeated it over just now while I was milking/' 

There were some, and there are some to-day, who can 
repeat most of the Bible by heart, and quote passage 
after passage. 

There was one little girl who was blind. After she 



Transforming Power op the Gospel. 181 

got interested in the Bible she found her way every day 
to the mission school in the village and taking her seat 
by the teacher she listened attentively to the reading of 
the Bible by the others. In that way she became so 
familiar with the Scriptures that she could almost repeat 
the whole of the New Testament, When the religious 
meetings were going on she was the first to attend. She 
was so concerned about some of her companions who 
did not know how to read the Bible, that she took them 
every day to the woods and repeated one chapter by 
heart and prayed with them. God greatly blessed her 
work and she died at last a beautiful, triumphant death. 

Not only individual Christians, but in all Christian 
families the Bible is read twice every day. 

The third indication of their genuine conversion is 
the transformation in moral character. 

While it is true that the Ethiopian cannot change his 
skin, nor the leopard his spots, yet it is true also, that 
Ethiopians and cannibals have changed their character 
and disposition which lie deeper down than the color or 
markings of the skin. One needs only to see and experi- 
ence these miraculous changes going on every day to 
appreciate the power of the gospel. 

We have stated before, the moral degradation of these 
Nestorian women before the gospel was carried to them. 
Indeed it was many years after, ere the change could 
be fully realized. The revilings and profanity which 
were common among them were beyond description. 



iS2 Persian Women. 

No wonder the ancients painted the furies in the form 
of women. One of these women, up to the time of her 
conversion, was so opposed to the preaching of the mis- 
sionaries, that when a young man who had heard them 
spoke favorably of them, she poured upon him such a 
volley of oaths and curses that it was dreadful to hear. 
The pupils of the seminary, in its early days, used to 
swear and use the vilest language on the slightest prov- 
ocation. And when rebuked for it, would answer: 
"Do you think people will believe me, if I do not repeat 
the name of God very often?" 

Lying and stealing were also very common among 
them. "Nothing," says Miss Fiske, "was safe in the 
early days of the seminary, except under lock and key. 
When questioned about it, they would say proudly, 'We 
all lie here! Do you think we could succeed in business 
without it V " Now when we see these same women in 
a few years become gentle, loving, sympathetic, and 
Christlike, we cannot but believe the divine nature has 
been imparted to them through the regenerating power 
of the gospel. 

Even in personal appearance, Christianity has made 
a complete change in them. When the missionaries 
first came in contract with them they were repulsively 
filthy and unattractive. Whatever natural beauty they 
had was obscured. Miss Fiske was obliged to teach her 
pupils cleanliness as well as book learning and godliness. 
Their homes were still worse. Families of two or three 



Transforming Power of the Gospel. 183 

generations lived, slept, and ate under the same roof, 
with little care for dusting or cleansing the furniture. 
The consequences were that vermin of all kinds had 
accumulated in many homes to a disgusting extent. 
The sweet pleasures of home and family relations were 
something almost unknown. You may be sure, excepi 
for the sake of truth, patriotism would tempt me to 
keep silence on these subjects. But let the gospel be 
appreciated. 

If one who had seen them in such a condition, would 
go into the homes now, and become acquainted with the 
family life, and see the attractiveness of homes and in- 
dividuals after they became converted, it would be no 
less wonderful to him than the supernatural in the 
Bible. It is truly said that "cleanliness is next to god- 
liness/' and some in this Christian America might learn 
of them, now, in many of these things. 

Again, the self-sacrifice of these converts is a strong 
evidence of their changed life and motives. 

The foundation of the Christian religion is t^e cross 
on Calvary. The Master has summoned every follower 
to take up the cross and follow him. To be a true 
Christian is to be in the service and for the service con- 
tinually. There is no room in the Church for any per- 
son who will enlist in the army of Christ from motives of 
worldly gain or welfare. 

We may study the self-sacrifice of these Nestorhn 
converts from three points of view. 



1 84 Persian Women. 

Sanctified giving, consecrated lives, and patient en- 
durance in persecutions. 

It is truly said that a converted man must have a 
converted pocketbook. These converts were taught as 
soon as possible to give to the Lord. As early as 1844 
we have records that pupils of the seminary made fifty 
garments for poor children. In the following year when 
some mountaineers came to beg money for their ragged 
children, the pupils were asked: "Who will give her 
own clothes and wear poorer ones until she can make 
others?" Many responded at once. In 1848 the col- 
lection at a monthly concert of prayer, from these same 
pupils, amounted to $7.00, which was used for sending 
the gospel to the mountains. They had special hours 
every week in the scholastic term for sewing for benev- 
olent purposes. At the end of one term they had raised 
$16.00 in that way. 

The subject of giving was for the first time presented 
to the congregation in the village of Geog-Tapa in 1852 
by John and Yonan. On the first Sabbath of that year 
John preached on the subject and a few krans (twenty 
cents each) were contributed. On the first Sabbath of 
the next month my father preached on the same subject. 
He was well posted, as Miss Fiske had read with him 
the prize essays on benevolence, published by the Amer- 
ican Tract Society. After showing the needs of the 
world, Bibles were distributed among those present for 
a Bible reading on the subject. The passages which had 




Mirza David M. Yonan and Wife. 



Transforming Power of the Gospel. 185 

been selected showed first, the antiquity of benevolent 
contributions; second, that the poor were to give as well 
as the rich; third, the promises of God which are linked 
with the command to give. There were two hundred 
present that day, and the contribution, in money and 
cotton yarn amounted to more than fifteen krans. 

On the month following it was increased to twenty- 
five krans, almost double. Some women who had no 
money, gave eggs and crosses of ivory and silver were 
often seen in the contribution box. 

At one time a woman came to one of the ladies of the 
mission while alone in her room, and took out a gold 
ornament, the only one of any value she possessed. It 
had been handed down as an heirloom in her family for 
many generations. This, she said she wanted to give to 
help to send the gospel to others, only no one must know 
who gave it. The ornament was sold for $4.00. Some 
women cut off the silver fastenings of their outer gar- 
ments and cast them into the Lord's treasury. 

There was a remarkable revival of benevolence in 
1861. A full account of it was written by my father to 
Miss Fiske and Mrs. Stoddard and also to Dr. J. H. 
Shedd. It was published in "Woman and Her Savior in 
Persia," and also in June (1895) issue of the "Rays of 
Light," a paper published in Oroomiah. He says: 

"The prayers and tears of our missionary friends have 
this winter received a joyful reward from our Father in 
heaven." He then proceeds to tell of the observance 



1 86 Persian Women. 

of the week of prayer, of the continuance of the spirit 
of prayer during the weeks and months following. 
Then of the meeting of the monthly concert of prayer 
for missions on the last Sabbath in March. At that 
time a stiring appeal was made to raise funds to sup- 
port a preacher in the mountains. The Spirit of God 
was among them, and "every obstacle was swept away/'' 
When one after another had given with a willing heart, 
"Guwergis cried out, 'Women, where are you? In the 
wilderness women gave their brazen mirrors/ I 
(Yonan) said, 'Holy women, to-day ends fifteen years of 
the prayers of Christianity among us. Speak!' (It was 
fifteen years since the revival in 1846.) One replied, 
'I half a monat;' 'and I a head-dress;' 'I a silver orna- 
ment;' 'I my earrings;' and so on. A widow said, 'I 
have kept my husband's coat till now; I will sell it and 
give half the price.' A mother said, 'I have nothing 
now, but I will give the work of my hands this winter, 
a tope (ten yards) of cotton cloth.' Time was given 
for all to contribute, and then we spent a season in 
joyful song and pleasant prayer. The report of what 
had been done spread quickly through the village, and 
my mother-in-law sent word that she would give a hun- 
dred and twenty-eight pounds of raisins. In the morn- 
ing, before I was up, my uncle and his wife came and 
promised a load of wheat (five bushels); and when pass- 
ing through the village, a woman put an ornament in 
my pocket to sell for the cause. Monday we came to the 



Transforming Power of the Gospel. 187 

city for the gospel day (the concert is held there on 
Monday), and every one who met us remarked our glad 
faces. In the meeting, after Mr. Coan spoke, John 
opened a bundle of the gifts, and Moses described the 
scenes of the day before. I said, 'One toman led to 
sixty in our village yesterday: perhaps it will lead to 
hundreds more/ Many times the good in the heart of 
the Christian comes up into his mouth, and then goes 
back; but when the power of God prevails, it not only 
comes into the mouth, but comes forth and abounds. 
Priest Yakob added, f For twenty-five years we have said, 
"Let the Lord go before;" and now that he has come, 
let us wait no longer, but give/ " 

And then the giving commenced there. Later on 
Yonan adds: 

"In our village, besides the tithes, seventy tomans 
were collected, and in the city two hundred and fifty. 
I hope the whole will go up to five hundred or more. 
I stand amazed. I can think nothing but, '1 am a 
miserable sinner/ The glorious God has gone before 
us in mercy. For two or three years our village was 
going down; we were at variance and in trouble; but 
Immanuel met us with a blessing, a hundredfold beyond 
our expectation. The pledges then made have since 
been fulfilled, with very few exceptions, and that not 
regretfully, but with a heartiness truly affecting to those 
who knew their poverty/' 



1 88 Persian Women. 

The contributions have since increased in many vil- 
lage churches, some of which have become entirely self- 
supporting. From the above descriptions the following 
lessons may be gathered: 

First. The giving was started with earnest prayer, 
and the subject was presented to the people by faithful 
ministers of the gospel. 

Second. That poverty is no hindrance in giving to 
the Lord. 

Third. That small begininngs sometimes result in 
great endings. 

Fourth. That giving is not only a duty but a trans- 
cendent privilege of the child of God, and proceeds from 
an atmosphere of love and devotion. 

Fifth. God blesses most the giving which costs the 
most. 

If the churches, missionary societies and all God's 
children could only learn to appreciate this great priv- 
ilege of giving to the Lord, the boards would not to- 
day be crippled by debt and God's work hindered by 
want of funds. 

Then as to their consecrated lives. We have only time 
and space for a few instances: 

Hanna was the daughter of a wealthy and intelligent 
Nestorian. In 1845, when a little child, she was brought 
to the Seminary to be taught "wisdom," but she was 
so high tempered and perverse that the teachers could 
hardly manage her at all. Her fits of anger and rage 



Transforming Power op the Gospel. 189 

were so violent that she was frequently sent home for 
weeks and months. Hence, she learned "wisdom" 
rather slowly at first. After her conversion a great 
change took place. She became one of the gentlest, 
most lovable of characters, ready to give up everything 
for Jesus, and to make any sacrifice for the good of 
souls. Badal, a native helper, son of an herdsman, 
proposed to her father to marry her and take her with 
him to the mountains, whither he was going to preach. 
Her father told her of the proposition. She replied 
meekly: "I should rejoice to suffer with the people of 
God. I choose to go with Badal." And in June, 1858, 
she left for ,the mountains. She was very happy and 
bravely endured every privation, but her health failed 
and she died in December, 1860. In the year following 
her death, her brother to whom her property had been 
left, was awakened by the Spirit and immediately gave 
up the property to sustain the laborers in the mountains. 
Sarah, the wife of Kasha Oshana, who is still living, is 
another example of devout consecration. She is the 
daughter of Priest Abraham of Geog-Tapa, and was 
among the earliest pupils of the seminary. After mar- 
riage, she, also, gladly went to the mountains with her 
husband to labor for the poor, ignorant people there. 
Her hardships and privations have been beyond descrip- 
tion, yet she is always happy. She is considered one of 
the most scholarly among the Xestorian women. Her 
letters from the field of labor are read with interest and 



i go Persian Women. 

profit by the pupils of the seminary and the ladies of 
the mission. 

Leya, of Geog-Tapa,, is another who has done much 
evangelistic work in recent years. She studied at the 
seminary and married one of my uncles. For many 
years her home duties demanded her whole time and 
Christian effort. But after her husband died she was 
employed under Mrs. Shedd to work among the women. 
She went from village to village in Oroomiah and has 
made several trips to the remotest parts of the moun- 
tains, Often she had to climb the steep and rugged 
hills on her hands and feet in dangers and privations 
almost unendurable. Her reports are most thrilling 
and pathetic. Eecently she has been very much broken 
by bereavement after bereavement in her own immediate 
family. Yet the last letter I received from her, soon 
after the death of a son, a strong and brave youth, was 
full of the comfort of trust in Jesus. 

If there were only space, many others might be men- 
tioned whose devotion and courage in the Master's ser- 
vice are well worthy of imitation. Nor have they failed 
in "patient endurance" in the time of persecutions and 
trials. Persecution is a severe test of the faith of God's 
people. The Nestorian converts, especially women, 
have undergone great trials from the beginning, They 
were persecuted by the Moslems; they were persecuted 
by Mar Shimon, their own patriarch, and by the un- 
converted parents and brothers. They were often 



Transforming Power of the Gospel. 191 

beaten by their husbands and fathers-in-law. and driven 
from home. My devoted mother who was an earnest 
Christian, was often hindered by her father-in-law from 
praying in the house. When driven from home, she 
would take a little company of believers with her to 
the woods and pray with them. 

Persecutions and trials have never been able to crush 
the Church of God; they rather develop it. As one of 
the fathers said, "God brought down the hammer and 
the sparks flew abroad." Such has been the case with 
the missionary work among the women of Persia. 

The following extracts from a letter written in 187G 
by Hanne, my wife's (Mrs. Yonan's) mother, will have 
a deeper interest for its readers when they know a little 
of its history. During the year 1876 Mrs. C. H. De- 
Long, of Dwight, Illinois, was President of a local mis- 
sionary society. They determined to employ a native 
preacher in Persia, and secured Pastor Baboona and 
wife Hanne. This brought about a correspondence 
between Mrs. DeLong and Hanne. In boxes sent to the 
missionaries was a doll for the little girl who afterwards 
became Mrs. Yonan. Years rolled by when we were at 
Colorado Springs, Col., in the summer of 1897, on a 
little vacation. I preached in the Second Presbyterian 
Church. In the congregation was a retired minister 
and his wife, who kindly invited us to dine with them. 
In examining some curiosities from Persia in the parlor 
pf Mrs. DeLong, I found in a pen box a beautiful letter 



192 Persian Women. 

written in Syriac, which, to my surprise, was from my 
wife's mother. Explanations followed and to the joy 
of Mrs. DeLong she found she was entertaining the 
daughter of her long-ago beloved Persian friend, the 
little girl who had been so delighted with the doll from 
the missionary box. 

We trust by publishing this letter to show the sweet- 
ness of spirit, energy, consecration, gratitude, and love 
of its author to Christ, and immortal souls, who was 
from early life a convert and a graduate of the Female 
Seminary in Oroomiah; also to encourage those who sent 
boxes to foreign lands, assuring them it will be returned 
in after years in blessings unexpected. "Cast thy bread 
upon the waters; for thou shalt find it after many days.'' 
Oroomiah, Persia, Village of Gavalan, July 20, 1876. 
Love and Peace to you from Hanne; beloved and dear 
friend, Mrs. DeLong: 

First, I inquire for the health of one like you, a new 
lady friend; and not only a friend, but a beloved sister. 
Suddenly her love was revealed to me from a distance, 
coming from the other side of the waters, by the arrival 
of that little box filled with love. By this we take hold 
by a chain by which you and I and your society are mak- 
ing the attempt to render habitable waste places, and 
to bring forth worthy fruits for the kingdom of our 
Lord and blessed Kedeemer. I too here am bound by 
it to labor as I am able for every soul; to unite it with ns 
to bring forth fruits for our Lord from every nation. 




Mrs. Yonan. 
Head Press, First-class Nestorians of Oroomiah. 



Transforming Power of the Gospel. 193 

Truly this is not a small work nor an earthly nor a per- 
ishing one, but a great and lasting work which has for 
its foundation the salvation of sinnners. Yes, when the 
world is destroyed and its elements separated, all the 
work of the faithful who are bound by this chain and 
drawn together in this spiritual work will be plain and 
manifest. Although here their bodies are concealed by 
the circumference of the earth and they cannot see each 
other (just as you and I are separated), although I so 
earnestly long to see you I cannot, but I look forward to 
the day when I shall meet with you and with your 
sweet society. Of course to see each other in this world 
is impossible but by our spirits and by our love and fel- 
lowship which is centered in Christ we see each other 
daily. Hereafter I do not believe that it will be 
destroyed, but that it will increase and incite my 
thoughts to spiritual work and bind me with you more 
firmly in the love of Christ our blessed Savior. You 
should know that your letter and all the things which 
were in that box reached me April 16, 1876, by the 
hand of the honored Mr. Stocking. Your letter greatly 
rejoiced my heart and the things in the box delighted 
the children; and also the mothers of those children 
who received of the little dolls and pictures. Many 
of the women were astonished and exclaimed, "How is 
this? Having never seen you they have sent you such 
things?" My answer to them was, "The love of Christ 
brings forth such fruit and makes all nations acquainted 



194 Persian Women. 

with each other by the teaching of the gospel." For 
this reason we are calling you that you also may be in 
our ranks. You wish to know about our work now, 
and where we are. We have again returned to the field 
where we first labored. Your letter to me was directed 
to Ada (a village of Oroomiah). We were there six 
years. It is a year and eight months since we left Ada. 
Now we are in Gavalan, a village lying by itself at the 
outskirts of the plain of Oroomiah and at the west of 
Lake Oroomiah, surrounded by the Mussulman villages. 
A few years before this the whole village was Nestorian. 
During the last few years the papists have entered it 
and things are considerably mixed, but the Priest (Priest 
Baboona, her husband), has labored here from his youth. 
He has taught as many as eighty young men and women 
to read, and now since we have returned here the work 
of the papists has gone backward a good deal. That is, 
some of the young men and women who had read with 
my husband had been deceived by the papists and led 
away from their faith; now again their inclinations are 
toward the gospel truth. Many of them again come to 
hear the glad tidings. Our church members are sixteen, 
four women and twelve men, but our congregations 
sometimes number seventy or eighty. Aside from this 
I have a class of women whom I teach in Sunday school, 
and also meet for prayer. They hear and pay good 
attention. This class of women sometimes numbers 
twenty or thirty. I rejoice to teach them and have 



Transforming Power of the Gospel. 195 

much anxiety about the salvation of their immortal 
souls. I believe that you pray for us, and I ask that 
you continue to pray for us. When I meet with my 
dear Master I pray for you, and I think that you pray in 
our behalf that God would bless our service here, which 
is in the hope of Christ, that quickly these souls for 
whom we are working should be counted in the Church 
of Christ as living stones, the fruit of your effort in the 
gospel, and of those of your country for us and for our 
fallen people. Our nation is small; it had not strength 
to send preachers from place to place, but by the grace 
of your country we have been elevated to this degree, 
and we leave our native place and remove to other 
places to teach and to preach Christ for every nation and 
people. We are now supported by the help of your con- 
tributions. A small portion of our living comes with 
great difficulty from the Church because they are poor 
and few. They have not the strength to supply all of 
our needs. I wish to let you know why until now I 
have waited and have not sent you a letter. It was in 
my heart to write to you just in those days that your 
letter came to my hand. My delay was only on account 
of this: I wished to send you some trifles from Persia 
to please the girls who were associated with you in send- 
ing me those things. I waited for one of the mission- 
aries to come to us that I might inquire when they would 
send boxes to your country. They came late. For that 
reason there was delay. You wish to know about my 



196 Persian Women. 

family. We are five (the literal translation is, "We are 
five heads"), two ourselves and three are children. Two 
of them are daughters and one little son. Give my 
thanks to that aged mother, and thank her for the 
trouble, and also to all that band who are associated 
with you, and all your friends. I hope that you will 
never forget me in your letters and in your prayers, 
continually. The priest (her husband), too, sends his 
love and peace to your husband and to you and to all 
your friends. I am still in hopes that when mission- 
aries send boxes to your county, a small box from me 
will reach you. Amen. 

DYING TESTIMONY. 

One of the strongest evidences of Christianity is the 
bright hope and cheerfulness of the believer in the pros- 
pect of death. At a time when all the powers of hell 
are engaged to shake the hope and to mar the peace of 
the last moments; when Satan showers his fiery dares 
by painting before the soul the vision of an angiy judge, 
a broken law, and a night of eternal despair; it is at 
such a time that Jesus is closest to his dying child with 
his staff of comfort and defense, and beats back the 
mighty foe, so that the believer may sing with the 
Psalmist: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of 
the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art 
with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." 



Dying Testimony. 197 

Let us go to the bedside of a few of these converted 
women in the land of Esther and hear their last testi- 
mony. Miss Fiske writes of little Sarah, whose name 
has been mentioned before. On Sabbath morning she 
was as comfortable as she had been for several days. 
But soon after noon it was evident that she must go. 
Her sufferings became intense and, for a moment for- 
getting her father's absence, she said: 

"Let my father come!" 

She was told that her father had gone to preach. 
She replied: 

"Oh, now I remember, he has gone to preach the 
gospel; do not send for him on my account, let him 
preach!" 

Then it was proposed to send for her teacher (Miss 
Fiske), she said: 

"I wish to see her once more, but you must not call 
her, this is the hour when she prays with my com- 
panions, let her pray." 

From this time her sufferings were so great that she 
hardly spoke for an hour. Just as the silver cord was 
loosing, she said in a clear voice: 

"My mother, I shall go very soon; raise me up that 
I may commit my spirit." 

The mother raised the dying child. She knelt, sup- 
ported by maternal love and said : 

"Lord Jesus receive ." And the dear child had 

gone to heaven. 



198 Persian Women. 

Blind Martha was noted for memorizing the New 
Testament. While on the bed of sickness she spent 
most of her time in prayer. When it was suggested that 
praying so much might weary her, she replied: 

"I know I am weak, but praying never tires me." 

Just at the dawn of a smiling June morning she 
said: 

"Mother, the day breaks, I think Jesus is coming for 
me, let me go!" 

The mother rose, but seeing no particular change she 
slept again. When she awoke the sun was shining 
brightly and looking at the face of dear Martha, lo ! Jesus 
had come and taken her to himself. 

Another, when at the point of death, was asked by her 
brother: 

"Sister, are you dying?" 

She replied gently: "Brother, don't weep, the will of 
the Lord be done/' W'hen asked by the missionary who 
was at her bedside, "Have you no fear of death?" She 
said, "No," and slept in Jesus. 

Another one, while the little group of companions 
were sitting around to catch the precious words that fell 
from her dying lips, said: 

"The blessed Savior is my all and to him I wish to go." 

Turning to her friends she said: 

"Love the Savior more than I have loved him!" 

Such has been the testimony of hundreds who have 
fallen asleep in Jesus, to mingle their voices with those 



Dying Testimony. 199 

of the angels and saints around the throne of the 
Almighty, since the gospel message was taken to Persia, 
Such witnessing for the Church of God may well defy- 
all the arguments of the skeptic and the scoffer against 
missions, for only the supernatural power of the super- 
natural God could have wrought such marvelous trans- 
formations. 



CHAPTEE XVIII. 
A GLIMPSE OP THE GENERAL WORK. 

Thus far we have confined ourselves to the mission 
work among the Nestorians, as that was the first, and 
has been the most fruitful work done in Persia. But, 
inasmuch as the Nestorians are only about one-tenth 
of the population of the district of Oroomiah, it may 
be well, before leaving this part of the subject to make 
some mention of the work done among other races, such 
as Jews, Armenians, and Moslems. Faithful efforts 
have been made through the Nestorians to reach them. 
Miss Van Duzee has been in the habit of visiting Jewish 
women in their quarter twice a week, and a number of 
the girls are receiving instruction at their homes. Al- 
though opposition continues strong, yet the iNestorian 
Bible women are more encouraged now than heretofore. 
And what is still more wonderful, a few, even of the 
Moslem women, have been truly converted, who cluster 
together in the missionary homes and receive instruc- 
tion. But, the main agency for reaching these be- 
nighted women here, as elsewhere, has been the medical 
work. 

Here they come in touch with every class. The two 
(200) 



A Glimpse of the General Work. 201 

beautiful hospitals in Oroomiah, one for men the other 
exclusively for women, are both under the kind and 
skilful management of Dr. J. P. Cochran. And twice 
a week the dispensary is opened, where the lame, the 
blind, and the halt are brought for treatment. Dr. 
Cochran's influence is manifest among rich and poor. 
The lamented Mrs. D. P. Cochran, the mother of the 
Doctor, who was for years the "house-mother" of the 
hospital, can never be forgotten. Although dead, she 
yet speaketh through the memory of hundreds who 
received from her words of instruction and comfort 
while in the hospital. Although the direct fruits may 
not be apparent, yet the impressions made are deep and 
abiding and widespread. 

Now let us turn our faces to the vast country outside 
of Oroomiah, and see what has been done for the mil- 
lions of women dwelling there in misery and degrada- 
tion. It is encouraging to see the desert smile, with 
here and there a green oasis, a "rose of Sharon" and a 
"lily of the valley" shedding rich perfume around, to 
gladden the hearts darkened by sin and superstition. 
There are five regular stations and a great many out- 
stations beyond the limits of Oroomiah, where efforts are 
continually being made to reach, elevate, and save the 
women. The main channels in all of these have been, 
the evangelistic, educational, medical work, and the col- 
porteur. The difficulties at these stations have been 
greater and of somewhat different character from those 



202 Persian Women. 

encountered in Oroomiah. Time, however, has wrought 
sure and marvelous progress. 

One of the first stations established after Oroomiah 
was Tabriz, opened in the year 1873. This is the largest 
and most enterprising of the cities of Persia. It has a 
population of 200,000 made up principally of Moslems 
and Armenians. The first lady missionary in this field 
was Miss Jewett, who has continued to labor there ever 
since. She is now a most active worker in the out field 
Last year's report says: In one tour which lasted two 
months, she visited the out-stations and the surrounding 
field to the south of Lake Oroomiah and preached the 
gospel to some seven hundred women and children. 

The girls' school which was opened from the begin- 
ning, has been under the care of Miss Holliday, assisted 
by an efficient native Armenian and his wife. The 
number of pupils last year was fifty-five, of whom thirty 
were boarders, and most of them Armenians. 

The medical work for women at that point, has been 
under Miss Bradford, M. D. The dispensary was 

thronged with patients all through the year, from all 
classes and races. The record shows that 3,095 patients 
have been in attendance during the year. The native 
Bible woman has done a great deal, conversing and read- 
ing the Bible to the waiting patients. Dr. Bradford has 
also made excursions around the city visiting villages, 
treating the sick, and ministering to the souls. She has 
made a fine impression in this Persian metropolis. 



A Glimpse of the General Work. 203 

The work began at Salmas in 1884. This is the 
center of the largest Armenian and papal-Nest orian 
population. The first girls' school was opened here by 
Miss C. 0. Van Duzee, sister of the one at Oroomiah. 
She opened with two girls only. But the number soon 
increased to fifty. Miss McLean, one of the teachers, 
giving the report of last year says: 

"In spite of the threats and opposition of the Ar- 
menians, from the first, from January to the middle of 
February, the average attendance was forty-two, and 
from that time until the close of the school fifty-four. 

The medical work at this station has been under Dr. 
Yohannan Sayad, a worthy and well qualified native 
Nestorian, who was educated in New York. All classes 
of women have been treated by him. 

Mosul Station, in Assyria, has been opened in more 
recent years. Here the gospel has been preached to 
many women in Arabic. The girls' boarding school, 
however, is the chief instrumentality for reaching them. 
It has been under the superintendence of Miss Eein- 
hard, though the responsibility and management has 
rested chiefly upon Mrs. Werda, a native helper, whose 
husband died in the early part of last year. Mrs. Werda 
is a consecrated graduate of the Fiske Seminary and 
well qualified for her duties. A kindergarten depart- 
ment has recently been added. The two graduates of 
last year are both now engaged in teaching. 



204 Persian Women. 

A station was established at Teheran, the capital, in 
1872, where earnest efforts have been made to reach all 
classes of women. "Iran Bethel," the girls' school 
under the care of Miss Schenck, with the assistance of 
other lady missionaries, has had encouraging prospects. 
The attendance of last year was seventy-eight, of whom 
sixty-one were boarders. An Industrial School has 
been recently opened in connection with it. Another 
school has also been opened here, especially for Jewish 
girls, superintended by Mrs. Potter, which, although at 
great disadvantage, has done remarkably well as to num- 
bers and scholarship. 

The medical branch of the work, as usual, is the most 
aggressive. The hospital arrangements are almost per- 
fect. Miss Dale is the matron. During last year about 
6,000 patients were treated, most of them women. An- 
other dispensary has been opened in the Jewish quarter 
under Miss Smith, M.D. Thus the gospel has been 
preached to many women, not only through the reg- 
ular preaching services on the Sabbath, but in the 
schools and in the dispensaries by means of Bible 
women. 

The work in Hammadan has been carried on along the 
same lines as in other places. The "Faith Hubbard 
School/' under Miss Montgomery, had during 1896 en- 
rolled eighty-seven girls, three of whom were Moslems, 
six Jewesses, and the rest Armenians. The religious 
services held in the dispensary every morning except 



A Glimpse of the General Work. 205 

the Sabbath day has proved a great attraction. Miss 
Wilson, M.D., who is at the head of the medical work 
here, has done a good deal of itinerating in the villages 
around the city and with great success. Mirza Sa'eed, 
M.D., a native convert and a fine physician, has been for 
many years and is still stationed here; his work and his 
influence among all classes is remarkable; his natural 
talents as a scholar and his piety as a Christian gentle- 
man are well worthy of imitation. 

Such have been the channels of missionary propa- 
ganda in all the stations. The sick have been healed, 
the ignorant taught, and souls dead in trespasses and 
sins have been resurrected to life again. Homes have 
been blessed, broken hearts consoled, and the prisoners 
of custom and superstition released. Oh, what a bless- 
ing to the women of Persia! 

But these wonders and signs have been wrought almost 
exclusively among the non-Mohammedan women of 
Persia. The question naturally arises, What has been 
done for the millions of Moslems, the most degraded of 
all? Owing to the intolerance and fanaticism of the 
Moslems, nothing has been done directly that could be 
counted. I suppose that in all of Persia not more than 
tw*o or three hundred women have been reached, either 
by means of schools, medicine, or the direct preaching of 
the word. These few have made their way to the mis- 
sionary in the silent hours of the night, like Nicodemus 
of old, or as opportunity offered. There is indeed, small 



206 Persian Women. 

hope of evangelizing them to any considerable extent, 
so long as the chasm of social inequality between the 
sexes exists as at present, and the foolish custom of 
secluding the women makes it almost impossible to 
reach them. And were the ministers of the gospel to 
inaugurate any vigorous measures for evangelizing these 
Moslem women, they would most likely suffer under the 
clubs and stones of the moollahs and Sa'eeds. Is ever- 
theless we are thankful for the amount of good that has 
been done in an indirect way, which we are sure will 
bring forth fruit in the years to come. The seed has 
been sown in many ways. The example of the mis- 
sionaries and the Christian converts of other races; the 
gentle, loving manner in which Christians treat their 
wives; the scattering of Bibles through the country; the 
trips of the Bible women and missionaries here and 
there; the open hospitals and dispensaries, to which most 
of them are compelled to go to obtain the medical advice 
and treatment they need; the kindness and sympathy 
of the missionaries in times of famine and pestilence, 
not infrequent there, must inevitably bring forth fruit 
in course of time. 

THE LITTLE DONE — THE MUCH UNDONE. . 

I have thus told you briefly what has been done 
toward evangelizing and elevating the women of Persia. 
While a thousand times grateful for this much, I cannot 
refrain from pointing the reader to what remains yet to 



Little Done — Much Undone. 207 

be done. Because it is so vast and appalling, it seems 
to me when I think of it that we have barely touched 
the fringe of the field. At a liberal estimate, the num- 
ber of the evangelized women in Persia, from both 
Mohammedan and non-Mohammedan can hardly reach 
5,000. How will that compare with about 5,000,000 
who have never heard the name of Christ, nor received 
any of the benefits of his gospel? And these millions 
represent a life so awful and a woe so mournful that no 
words can depict it. O Christian sisters and mothers of 
America, I appeal to you in behalf of my countrywomen ! 
Beloved friends, if you could only see their sordid misery 
and sinfulness, mere human sympathy and pity would 
move you to do something for their uplifting. But I 
point you to the crucified one upon Calvary! For his 
sake stretch out your helping hand. 

"Poor blind lead blind, affrighted, 
To ditch and darkness there; 
Blood-bought 'women' benighted, 
Are groping to despair. 

"How can Christ's flock be gathered, 
If none shall guide their way!'' 
How long shall they be scattered? 
How long, left lost to stray?" 

In Conclusion. — Before closing these pages, as a 
native of Persia, and as one raised and cherished in the 
loving arms of missionaries, and also as a representative 
of my people, I deem it the great privilege of my life to 



208 Persian Women. 

acknowledge in all sincerity and reverence, the kindness, 
sympathy, and longsufTering of the missionaries in their 
labors among us. Some of their methods of work might 
be open to criticism — we are all but human — yet they 
have sown the seed in tears and shall surely reap with 
rejoicing. It is through their faithful work I have been 
impelled to give my life and energies to the same great 
cause. 

Their self-sacrifice in leaving home and fatherland 
and all whom they knew and loved, to go among a 
strange people; especially the heroic devotion of gentle, 
delicate ladies in long journeys and under the piercing 
rays of the hot sun, in poor and unhealthy homes (that 
was particularly true of the pioneers). We would 
have the world to know that we are not ungrate- 
ful for all these things. We do love and honor them. 
Our fathers have loved them and shown tender respect 
to them. 

When Mrs. Grant died after a few short years of toil, 
our bishops assembled and said to Dr. Grant: 

"We will bury her in the church, where none but holy 
men are buried; she has done so much for us, we want 
the privilege of doing something for her, and we will 
dig her grave with our own hands." 

And when the sainted Miss Fiske, the ideal mis- 
sionary, and the idol of these Nestorians, left Oroomiah 
her pupils offered their earnest prayers that she might 
come back to them and mingle her dust with that of 



Little Done — Much Undone. 209 

her children. And when they learned of her death, 
they wrote to her mother, "If there is another Fidelia 
Fiske send her to us!" May God yet hear that prayer 
and send a Miss Fiske to them. 

When the beloved Mrs. D. P. Cochran died in 
Oroomiah, our old pastors, with hair whitened in the 
service, carried her coffin in their arms a great distance 
as a sign of reverence and honor for her loving labors 
among them. The lamented Dr. J. H. Shedd was hon- 
ored and looked upon by all classes as a bishop, priest, 
and father. 

winds, that sweep over those who have died for a 
cause they loved more than life, touch lightly we beg, 
the sacred dust ! sun, touch gently, with thy burning 
rays, the lives of those who still live and toil! Let the 
story of their love for humanity, of their untiring energy 
and unwavering faith and hope in Jesus Christ, be pro- 
claimed throughout the world and in all coming genera- 
itons, to stimulate, encourage, and inspire the children 
of God! 



fc- 



CHAPTEE XIX. 
MALEK YONAN. 

From among a host of those who "through faith 
wrought righteousness, obtained promises, . . . out of 
weakness were made strong," we sleet one name, that of 
Malek Yonan, father of the writer, of whom we wish to 
give a brief sketch at the close of this book on the 
women of Persia. We select him for three simple 
reasons. First, because he owes most of his education to 
Miss Fidelia Fiske; second, because it has been his priv- 
ilege to do more in educating and saving Persian women 
than any other one of his countrymen; and third, be- 
cause I have been often requested by kind friends to 
write a sketch of his life. 

Malek Yonan, now in his seventy-fourth year, was 
born in Geog-Tapa, a village of 1,500 inhabitants, 
situated four miles east of the city of Oroomiah. The 
inhabitants of this village are among the best families of 
the Nestorians in Persia, and from the very beginning of 
the mission work it has been a center of influence and 
usefulness. It has given to the mission cause more 
preachers and Bible women than any other three villages 
of its size, and it has been for many years a self-support- 
ing church. The surroundings of this little village are 
(210) 




Mai,ek Yonan. 



Malek Yonan. 211 

very beautiful, with its luxuriant orchards, fruitful vine- 
yards, and green meadows. From its name, situation, 
and relics in pottery, coins, and images, it is judged to 
have been of Assyrian origon. But nothing is certainly 
known beyond its early occupation by the Nestorian 
Christians. Here Yonan has lived his life. At the age 
of three months his mother died, leaving him under 
the care of his grandmother, Shirin who lived with 
her brothers. As they were shepherds, most of his 
childhood (like thai of David) was spent in the sheep- 
folds and tents, playing with lambs and goats. His 
father was, at length, married a third time io a ISTes- 
torian girl, who had become a, convert to the Eoman 
Catholic faith. She took very little interest in Yonan, 
hence his childhood was almost wholly without training. 

When the missionaries had been in the field a few 
years, his great uncle, Malek Agabeck, who had already 
come to believe in them, and to* be greatly interested in 
their work, took Yonan to be taught and raised under 
"the influence of the missionaries. In the Memoir of Dr. 
David T. Stoddard, one of the pioneer missionaries, we 
find the following extract, quoted in his own words: 

"After my English class, Harriette reads and talks 
with John for an hour, while I am engaged in the same 
way with a boy named Yonan. His (uncle sometimes 
called) grandfather is a Malek at Geog-Tapa. Some- 
time since he applied to have Yonan received into some 
family of the mission and taught English. He was 



212 Persian Women. 

assigned to my care, and has been with me about three 
weeks. We are both much pleased with him. He is 
perhaps twelve years old, and as the Nestorians say, a 
very Vise' boy. So far as I know he is quite serious 
minded and you would infer from his conversation that 
he was a Christian. Certain it is that he reads and 
expounds Scripture with an ability and correctness that 
I have never seen surpassed, and perhaps not equaled 
at his age in our own land. He seems to love to read 
his Bible to me and to tell me the meaning, as he un- 
derstands it. As yet, he knows very little English and 
my only communication with him is in Syriac. If he be 
a Christian, God grant that he may grow fast in grace, 
and if he knows not the love of Christ, that he may be 
truly converted to himself. Yesterday, I learned with 
pleasure that he was one of the few who attended even- 
ing prayers in the jSTestorian Church. You know the 
priests read their liturgy morning and evening every day 
in all their churches. Yonan, without any knowledge 
of mine, has been there every evening. The church is 
only a short distance off, in the city." 

After some preparation Yonan was sent to the Male 
Seminary at Seir, where he distinguished himself and 
became a leader among the students and his quick in- 
tellect and social position enabled him to exert great 
influence either for good or evil over his schoolmates. 
Although thus, from his early years, brought into con- 
tact with missionary teaching and influence, hearing and 



Malek Yonan. 213 

knowing the truth of the gospel, yet no signs of regen- 
eration could be seen in his life until that memorable 
year, 1846, when such a wonderful work of grace spread 
through the two seminaries and all the surrounding 
country. In the beginning of the revival, some of the 
students in the Male Seminary who were not in sym- 
pathy with the movement, grouped themselves together 
to plot against it. While discussing the situation one 
proposed to rise against it and put it down. But my 
father said: "I don't want to be a Christian; I dont 
mean to be, but I am afraid to oppose this; we had better 
let it alone. If it is God's work we cannot put it down, 
and if it is man's work it will come to naught without 
our interference." And his words settled the opposi- 
tion, and nothing more was said or done about it. 

In the afternoon of the same day, before they began 
their studies, some of them were found on their knees 
praying. Let me quote a few lines from "Woman and 
Her Savior in Persia:" 

"In the evening, Mr. Stoddard sent for the two 
leaders in the opposition. One of the two was Yonan. 
Mr. Stoddard said to them, If you do not wish to be 
saved yourselves, I beg of you from inmost soul, not to 
hinder others!" 

My father says, "From the very moment Dr. Stod- 
dard spoke to me, eternity so opened up before me, that 
I was ready to be swallowed up. I longed for some one 
to speak to me of the way of escape. But no such word 



2i4 Persian Women. 

was spoken to me that night. I could not sleep, for I 
was almost sure there was but a step between me and 
death." 

But grace soon triumphed and he was found upon his 
knees, his face upon the ground, begging for the pardon 
of his sins. He arose with the assurance that his sins 
were cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ, That 
moment marked an epoch in his life. Thus he who had 
opposed the Church like Saul of Tarus became its chief 
champion. 

In the year 1847, just after the completion of his 
school days, he was married by his father contrary to his 
own wishes, and to one whom he did not love. For, 
according to the universal custom of the country, even 
among the Nestorians, the sons had no right to select 
their own wives. It was left entirely to the judgment of 
the fathers. Yonan, himself, had been educated beyond 
this unnatural custom, but his father was old and held 
to the old view in this matter, hence he carried his 
point despite the distress and earnest protest of the 
young man. Miss Fiske, writing of the revival of 184&, 
thus mentions this young married couple: 

"Yonan, the junior teacher of the school, had been 
married by force two years before by his wicked father; 
that too, when his heart was fixed upon another in every 
way fitted to be his companion. It was a severe trial, 
but the grace of God triumphed and his great desire 
seemed to be the conversion of the wife thus forced 



Malek Yonan. 215 

upon him. At midnight he was often heard interceding 
for her. And in the early part of the revival the answer 
came. I will never forget the time when, in an adjoin- 
ing room, I heard her, for the first time praying with her 
husband. It gave me a new insight into the meaning of 
the Scripture, 'they believed not for joyF " 

The new convert was very active among the women 
in her village, and has been ever since a devout child of 
God, full of good works. Malek Yonan has had great 
reason to be thankful for the Providence which directed 
his marriage, for the wife, at first so unwelcome, has 
proved a loving and sympathetic helpmate, a bless- 
ing to himself and his home. And thus by 
the grace of God, and by painstaking labor and 
patience, she developed her womanly and motherly 
graces to such a perfection, that she has been looked 
upon by her own family and neighbors as "the queen 
of home" and ideal housekeeper. No one that came in 
contact with her could help but praise her in glowing 
terms, and honor her for her gentle, sympathetic and 
loving nature. 

Yonan possessed unusual qualifications for teaching, 
not only in intellectual capacity and accuracy, but also 
in patience, in love for the young, and in an almost mag- 
netic influence over them. Hence he was called to 
tench in the Female Seminary soon after he had finished 
his course in the college, and occupied the position from 
1847 to 1860, under the principalship of both Miss Fiske 



216 Persian Women. 

and Miss Kice. While teaching in the seminary, he 
likewise continued his own studies, perfecting himself in 
the English language under Miss Fiske, in order that he 
might be able to use commentaries and other helps in 
teaching exegesis to his classes. The missionaries, also, 
have for many years considered him their best teacher of 
Syriac, the native tongue of the Nestorians. 

During his life at the Female Seminary, when the 
week's labor was done he used to go to Geog-Tapa, his 
native village, to spend the Sabbath. He soon became 
interested in organizing a Sabbath school there with the 
help of John and Moses. He was for some time super- 
intendent, and likewise teacher of a woman's Bible class. 

As soon as the school in Geog-Tapa was well estab- 
lished, he took Bibles and spelling books with him and 
went each Sabbath to some other village to organize 
similar schools, which have been ever since a blessing 
to our people. 

He has, moreover, been preaching for over forty 
years, and always acceptably. His style is clear, vigor- 
ous, and full of the Scripture. He has been particularly 
successful as a revivalist. In his early days he preached 
much on the sins of the age and the awful judgments of 
God. Often when he pictured the wrath to come and 
the doom of the sinner, his hearers would shudder and 
run from his presence. But in his old age, like the 
Apostle John, he loves best to dwell on the great love 
of God to sinful man. He has made a great many 



Malek Yonan. 217 

evangelistic tours. and was the first to offer to go to the 
mountains to preach. In a conference of missionaries 
and native helpers in Oroomiah, the necessities of the 
mountain field were discussed. On account of the dif- 
ficulties and dangers all hesitated to volunteer for the 
service. My father at length got up and said: "I will 
go, I will leave to-morrow for the mountains!" His 
courage and enthusiasm thrilled the audience, and 
many others immediately offered themselves for the 
work. As a speaker on popular suhjects he has never 
been excelled by any of his countrymen. He has been 
always at hand in the alumni meetings and commence- 
ments of the college and Fiske Seminary. I don't be- 
lieve he ever has failed to mention the names of Misses 
Fiske and Eice in any one of his addresses before the 
missionaries, teachers and scholars of these institutions. 
One secret of his great success in the ministry was his 
pastoral work. He sought to know and help the spir- 
itual condition of each member of his flock, seeking 
private opportunities of conversing and praying with 
them, and having a rare gift for winning confidence 
and inspiring enthusiasm in Christian work. 

He is, and always has been, pre-eminently a man of 
prayer. I have never known a man who took such 
delight in prayer as my father. He depends upon it as 
he does upon the bread and water which sustain his 
body. His private devotions often last three or four 
hours. Sometimes he is up in the morning long before 



2 1 8 Persian Women. 

sunrise, when everybody else is asleep, and nature in 
perfect quietness, and wrestles with the angel of God 
until sunrise. 

In the summer he goes out to the orchard, a quarter of 
a mile from home, and spends hours in prayer, standing, 
kneeling, or walking to and fro. He has a custom of 
praying for each one of his children while asleep. Our 
home is around a large court, and each side of the court 
is occupied by one of his sons. At midnight, sometimes, 
he will be heard pleading with God for them, going from 
one window to the other by turn in the court. 

I remember twice in my life when my mother was ill, 
and medicine seemed of no avail, he took my next older 
brother (now a graduate of Eush Medical College, Chi- 
cago) and myself, his two youngest sons, with him to 
church and prayed for my mother. On our return to 
her bedside she was better and in a few days able to be 
up again. 

What a comfort it has been to me since I left home to 
think that my father takes me every day to the throne 
of grace. Not only does he pray daily for his own chil- 
dren and grandchildren, but for each of our missionaries 
by name, mentioning the special needs of each; and for 
all the boards and Christian churches in Europe and 
America, who are interested in the salvation of his peo- 
ple and the world. 

He was the first man in Persia to inaugurate the 
family altar in his own household and to urge it upon 



Malek Yonan. 219 

all the people. Scarcely any day since his conversion, I 
believe, has worship been omitted in his household. 
During the week, especially in the latter years of his 
public life, the house would often be crowded from 
morning to night with people of all kinds and nation- 
alities. But nothing was allowed to interfere with 
family worship. Hundreds of Mohammedans have sat 
with reverence and heard his reading and exposition of 
a chapter from the Bible, and have closed their eyes 
when he prayed, though at no other place or occasion 
would they do it. He had a custom for many years to 
have the Bible read in the family worship in five differ- 
ent languages, each one of his four sons and himself 
reading the same verse in a different language thus 
making the meaning of every word very clear. 

Malek Yonan is a descendant of a well known family 
of Maleks or tribal kings or chieftains among the Nes- 
torians. The office has been in the family for hundreds 
of years, is in a manner hereditary, yet the incumbent 
has the right to transfer it in his own lifetime to some 
near relative, if his own son prove unfitted for it. 

When the missionaries first went to Oroomiah, my 
father's uncle, Agabeck, was Malek, and finding no one 
in his own family worthy to succeed him, he gave his 
titles and government seals to my father before his own 
death, and made him Malek. For over thirty years, 
now, he has served in this office, and has filled it 
with sagacity and courage. The corrupt influences 



220 Persian Women. 

and ways of the Oriental courts have never been able to 
dim the luster of his consecrated Christian life, nor to 
hinder his power and influence as a preacher of the 
gospel of Christ. Twice most of his property has been 
taken from him by haughty Moslem superiors, yet he has 
maintained his position in spite of Moslem prejudice. 

In late years, though much confined at home by feeble 
health and weak eyes, he has not failed to find work to 
do for his Savior. He has opened his home for a free 
school, where many young men, having no other oppor- 
tunity for getting an education, come to him daily for 
instruction. Many of the young men thus taught by 
him are now preaching or teaching, and some of them 
confess that they have learned more from him than in 
four years of the college course. 

Malek Yonan's hospitable home has often been opened 
to strangers and he delights to entertain consuls, pious 
travelers from American and missionaries. 

I beg leave to copy from a letter received by me not 
very long after coming to this country, the portion 
referring to such a visit. 

Philadelphia, November 12, 1893. 
"Mr. Yonan — My Dear Brother: — Mne years ago I 
went, with Dr. Shedd, of Oroomiah, and his son and 
mine, on the second Sabbath in November, from 
Oroomiah to Geog-Tapa, where we spent the day, at- 
tending the Sabbath schools, public worship, and in a 
short visit to the orphanage. At noon we were your 



MALEK YONAN. 221 

father's guests, and sat down to the dinner with a num- 
ber of prominent men and women whom your father 
had kindly invited to meet us. It was one of the most 
memorable and enjoyable Sabbaths of my life. I have 
told the story of that Sabbath and of that dinner at the 
house of Malek Yonan to many social companies and to 
many congregations and Sabbath schools in my own 
country. It never fails to awaken lively interest. Your 
honored father and his guests kindly took pains to ex- 
plain and illustrate to me the great and happy change 
that had been wrought in their community by the gospel, 
as it was brought to them fifty years before, and has been 
faithfully preached and taught ever since by Perkins, 
Grant, Fidelia Fiske, and their worthy successors. One 
illustration of the change was, I remember, specially em- 
phasized, in the fact that two women sat with us at that 
dinner, honored as the gospel only teaches and influ- 
ences us men to honor women, our sisters, our mothers, 
and the mothers of our children. ... I do not know 
whether you remember my visit, but having seen in the 
"Christian Observer/' of Louisville, that a son of Malek 
Yonan, of Geog-Tapa, is in the Louisville Theological 
Seminary, I could not be content without writing to you, 
and I will be truly thankful if you will write a letter to 
me. If you should ever be in Philadelphia, do not fail 
to find me at my office as given at the top of this page, 
or at my house (204 South 41st street), where I am now 
writing, and where I should delight to reciprocate the 



222 Persian Women. 

hospitality which I experienced in your Persian home. 
When yon write to your honored father, be so kind as 
to remember me to him, and assure him of my very 
grateful remembrance of him. 

With true brotherly love, 

Henry A. Nelson. 
Editor "The Church at Home and Abroad." 

I will close this brief sketch of my father with a 
valued testimony to his worth, written by a former mis- 
sionary in Persia, but now in this country, connected 
with the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian 
Church in New York, Eev. Benjamin Labaree, D.D. 

"One of the earliest acquaintances I made on going 
to Persia more than thirty-six years ago, were three 
young men of the village of Geog-Tapa, on whom the 
Spirit of God had come with quickening power. They 
were leaders in the reformation that attended the teach- 
ing of the missionaries. One of them named Pastor 
John, was long a pastor in his native village, but many 
years since went to his eternal reward. A second one, 
known as Deacon Moses, still lives, a much respected 
gentleman and consistent Christian in the same village. 
The third, Yonan, known for many years as Malek 
Yonan, has occupied a more prominent position among 
his people than either of the others. In his early days, 
after leaving the missionary training school, Yonan 
engaged as a teacher chiefly. It was in that capacity I 
knew him best, for he helped me to get on to my mis- 



Malek Yonan. 223 

sionary legs with the Syrian language. But among his 
own people he was famous for his power as a preacher. 
His expositions of Scripture were highly spiritual, 
original in thought and metaphor, and delivered with 
genuine eloquence. He was an orator of no mean power 
and was always a favorite speaker in any of the reformed 
pulpits. With the death of his uncle, the office of 
Malek of Ms people fell to him. It has not been an 
easy post to fill, though one of honor. As the spokes- 
man of Iris people with Persian landholders, haughty 
and oppressive Moslems, he has suffered much from mis- 
understanding, suspicion, and rank hatred on either 
hand. But few Orientals coidd have escaped as free 
from reproach as he has done. He has remained loyal 
down to his old age to his missionary friends, and to the 
evangelical principles he imbibed at their hands, though 
sorely tempted at times to desert the one and the other. 
He has all his lifetime made much of the word of God. 
Its study has been his recreation from his worldly avoca- 
tions. His handful of English commentaries have been 
used with diligence and profit. The family altar has 
not been neglected. There have his neighbors as well as 
his family been indoctrinated in divine truth, year in 
and year out. He has been ever an ardent supporter of 
the village Sabbath schools, because of their grand 
opportunities for impressing Scripture facts on the 
plastic minds of the young. Often he is invited to fill 
one or another -pulpit in his native town, and counts 



224 Persian Women. 

it ever a pleasure to drop his secular avocations for a 
number of days to conduct a series of preaching ser- 
vices elsewhere. During his generation his influence 
has been felt far and wide in support of the reillumina- 
tion of that Ancient Syrian Church out of the darkness 
and formalism into which it had fallen. His name will 
go down to future days as a landmark in the history of 
his people. May his last days on earth he his best days, 
and may he come to his end in a full age, like as a 
shock of com cometh in its season." 



NOTE. — After these pages were prepared for the 
press, the sad news came from my far-off home, an- 
nouncing the death of my dear mother, which took 
place on the 22nd of April, 1897. During five years 
of our separation from each other,we have looked for- 
ward with happy anticipation to the day we would meet 
again. But now my hopes have taken the wings of the 
morning and gone forever, as far as time is concerned, 
leaving a heartaehing, longing for one last word from 
her mouth, one look from her gentle eyes, and one 
kiss from her tender lips. I could not but feel it sorely 
for it was a mother's death. The many tears she has 
shed, many prayers she has offered for her children and 
especially for me, her youngest child, are being rewarded 
to-day. Thanks be to God for the blessed hope that we 
will meet again in the world of immortality. 

I. M. YONASf. 



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